The Georgetown men’s basketball team will look to recover from its third loss in four conference tilts with a home matchup against No. 25 Creighton on Wednesday. The Hoyas (11-6, 1-3 Big East) and Bluejays (13-4, 2-2 Big East) will tip off at 7:00 p.m. ET at Capital One Arena, with the game available on CBS Sports Network and live stats at guhoyas.com.
The Hoyas have stumbled out of the gates in Big East play, winning against St. John’s but losing their other four battles by double-digits. Most recently, they struggled to keep pace with No. 14 Villanova in the second half, losing 80-66 at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday. Freshman center Qudus Wahab was effective off the bench, scoring 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting and blocking two shots, but the starter, 7-foot senior Omer Yurtseven, was ineffective against a smaller Wildcats lineup, notching just 10 points on the afternoon. Sophomore guard Mac McClung and junior forward Jamorko Pickett also struggled, shooting a combined 7-of-27 from the floor in the loss.
Creighton has also had a shaky start to conference play, but has managed a .500 record through four games. After defeating Markus Howard and Marquette in their first game, the Bluejays dropped two straight to ranked opponents, No. 5 Butler and Villanova. On Saturday, they bounced back with a 12-point win over Xavier, as five Bluejays scored in double-digits. Their top-two leading scorers on the season, sophomore guard Marcus Zegarowski and junior guard Ty-Shon Alexander, were inefficient, shooting a combined just 8-of-27 from the field, but junior guard Mitch Ballock made up for some of that with 5-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc.
6-foot-7 sophomore forward Christian Bishop continues to be a solid option for the Bluejays down low, as he is currently third in the Big East in field goal percentage at 58.1 percent. Georgetown will again have a size advantage in the frontcourt, but Yurtseven and Wahab will need to assert themselves while avoiding foul trouble to help their team succeed.
The matchup between McClung and Zegarowski will also be intriguing as both players have established themselves as versatile offensive weapons in the conference after being named to the All-Freshman team last season.
Last year, the Bluejays won both matchups, constantly shredding the Hoya defense which allowed 173 combined points over the two games.
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