Marquette will look to erase the bad taste of its conference-opening loss to Seton Hall when the Golden Eagles begin their two-game east coast road trip tonight against an up-and-down Georgetown team.
Georgetown is still penciled into the top half of the BIG EAST in most power rankings despite lackluster losses to Radford, Monmouth and UNC Asheville. Georgetown’s only resume-building win in non-conference play was Syracuse, while tests against No. 4 Maryland and No. 15 Duke were four and two-point losses, respectively. The Hoyas opened up the BIG EAST slate with a 70-58 win against DePaul Wednesday.
The Hoyas have benefitted from D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera’s decision to return for his senior season. He leads the team with 15 points-per-game, 49 assists and 24 steals. In four career starts against Marquette, Smith-Rivera has averaged 19 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds.
Marquette freshman Henry Ellenson could use a bounce-back game following a 3-for-14 shooting performance Wednesday night. He’ll be matched up against budding sophomore forward Isaac Copeland, who’s averaging just over 12 points and is a versatile 6-foot-10 forward like Ellenson.
A loss to the Hoyas could make the Golden Eagles hopes to make it into the tournament already look bleak. Although Seton Hall isn’t a disastrous loss, the Pirates are a direct competitor for a fifth BIG EAST tournament spot, and with the top of the conference looking so strong, Marquette likely needs to take care of business against the middle and bottom of the conference. Starting off conference play with two losses to teams in the middle likely means Marquette would have to steal a win or two against the Top-25 ranked conference foes.
Tipoff is set for 4:30 p.m. CT tonight from the Verizon Center. Georgetown has the opportunity to tie the all-time series at 10 wins apiece. The contest is the third of the five-game BIG EAST marathon on Fox Sports 1, beginning at 11 a.m. with DePaul at Seton Hall.
