Two teams hoping to make a print for the Post pee’s game meet Tuesday night when Xavier hosts Georgetown in Cincinnati.
Musketeers (13-9, 5-6 Big East) comes from a loss of 86-77 to Creighton on Wednesday and has had five days rest to prepare for its first of nine remaining seasonal games.
Xavier has little room for errors to try to make a pressure for an NCAA tournament, with a championship run at the Big East tournament in New York in mid-March.
“We could really take off over the next four or five weeks,” said Musketeer’s coach Sean Miller. “Whether we can do it or not, it remains to be seen. We have the ability to play at a very high level. We have shown it. We have to turn it into high gear now.”
Xavier continues to be run by Zach Freemantle and Ryan Conwell. Freemantle leads the team in points (16.5 points per match) and rebounding (7.4 rpg) while Conwell scores on a clip of 16.3 points per competition.
Georgetown (14-8, 5-6) recovered from a 25-point home loss to St. John’s on January 28 with a victory 73-70 over Butler on Friday in Washington.
Hoya’s and musketeers met in Washington on January 3 and Georgetown took a victory 69-63. In that game, Georgetown’s Malik Mack received 20 of his high -ranking 26 points during the second half.
It has been a tough month for Hoyas since, as they have lost six out of eight in total to fall out of a great deal of consideration for the NCAA tournament.
“It’s been something of a frustrating January to come out of Syracuse (victorious on December 14) and not have the same range consistently,” said Georgetown coach Ed Cooley. “I give our children a lot of credit. Comes from a very disturbing loss to a high quality opponent (St. John’s), for us to respond as we did (Friday), especially the second six months defensively. Could close it.
Thomas Sorber and Micah Peavy lead a balanced score for Georgetown, with Sorber average 14.7 points and 8.9 returns per match while Peavy scores on a 14.4 ppg clip.
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