With Xavier and Georgetown buried in the bottom half of the Big East standings and little at stake when they meet Saturday night, handicapping their matchup is tricky.
Two things to expect, however, are a fast pace and lots of scoring. In each of their last four meetings, all won by Xavier, the Musketeers have put up at least 92 points.
Now it’s wait and see if the trend continues when Georgetown (9-19, 2-15 Big East) plays host to Xavier (14-14, 8-9) in Washington.
In their run-and-gun meeting on Jan. 19 in Cincinnati, Xavier rallied for a 92-91 win despite trailing most of the way.
It was an entertaining shootout between current Big East scoring leader Quincy Olivari of the Musketeers, who tallied 27 points, and Jayden Epps of the Hoyas, who had 32 points and 11 assists.
Olivari enters Saturday in fine form. In Xavier’s 91-58 win over DePaul on Wednesday, he made 11 of 16 shots on his way to scoring 32 points.
Epps, meanwhile, looks to rebound from an 0-for-7 shooting performance in Georgetown’s second loss to Villanova in a 12-day span, 75-47 on Tuesday.
It was one of the most noncompetitive defeats this season for the Hoyas, who shot 27.5 percent from the floor while surrendering 53.2 percent marksmanship from the Wildcats.
“We should have left our sorry asses right in D.C.,” Hoyas coach Ed Cooley said.
It was the 12th loss for Georgetown in its last 13 games, with the lone win coming last Saturday over DePaul. Similarly, Xavier has lost four of its last five with the victory coming over the Blue Demons.
The win wasn’t assured until Olivari went off in the second half, when he hit 10 of 11 shots, including all five of his 3-point attempts.
“I don’t know if I’ve had a player who’s meant more to the overall success of the team from an individual perspective than what Quincy Olivari has done for us,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said.
Dayvion McKnight also played a big role, collecting 13 points and eight assists without committing a turnover.
–Field Level Media