Tre Carroll continues his drive for a conference scoring crown, as well as some school history Saturday, when Xavier hosts Georgetown in a Big East rematch in Cincinnati.
Carroll leads the conference in scoring for all games (18.5 points per game) and is second in league games (19.5). A Xavier player has never led the Big East in scoring during its previous 12 seasons in the conference.
Xavier defeated Georgetown 80-77 on Dec. 20 in Washington, D.C. 80-77 to give coach Richard Pitino his first Big East win.
The two schools enter Saturday’s game with identical overall and conference marks at 13-15 and 5-12.
Xavier has dropped three straight games, five of six and eight of 10 overall, while streaky Georgetown has dropped five straight following a four-game win streak that came on the heels of a six-game skid.
The Hoyas will be without starting guard KJ Lewis for the remainder of the season. The team’s leading scorer, at 14.9 points per game, went down with a left ankle injury during Tuesday’s 76-60 loss to Marquette. Lewis is third on the team with 5.1 rebounds
“In these Big East games in the dog days of February, teams that want it the most are winning, and right now it’s very disappointing, as we’re not playing the way we should be playing at home,” Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley said. “But, you know, we’ll move on and prepare for Xavier. It’s a lot of frustration around, just around Hoya Nation. As part of what we do, we’ll rise above it, and we’ll prepare for the next game.”
Malik Mack is now the active leading scorer on Georgetown at 13.7 points while Vincent Iwuchukwu is scoring 11.6 points.
Xavier is coming off of a 94-84 loss at Providence on Wednesday. Four Musketeers reached double figures, led by Roddie Anderson’s 27 points. Carroll was held to 15 points, three points below his season average.
“Until we get that defensive identity, it’s gonna be really, really hard,” Pitino said after his team allowed at least 85 points for the 12th time this season. “We can’t just rely on trying to outscore teams and that’s kind of what we are right now.”
