Xavier, Georgetown in must-win mode to keep at-large hopes alive

Two teams with hopes of making a push for postseason play meet Tuesday night when Xavier hosts Georgetown in Cincinnati. The Musketeers (13-9, 5-6 Big East) are coming off an 86-77 loss to Creighton on Wednesday and have had five days of rest to prepare for their first of nine remaining regular-season games. Xavier has little room for error to try to make a push for an NCAA Tournament berth, barring 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," Musketeers coach Sean Miller said. "Whether we're able to do it or not, that remains to be seen. We have the ability to play at a very high level. We've shown that. We've got to turn it into high gear now." Xavier continues to be powered by Zach Freemantle and Ryan Conwell. Freemantle leads the team in scoring (16.5 points per game) and rebounding (7.4 rpg) while Conwell is scoring at a clip of 16.3 points per contest. Georgetown (14-8, 5-6) rebounded from a 25-point home loss to St. John's on Jan. 28 with a 73-70 win over Butler on Friday in Washington. The Hoyas and Musketeers met in Washington on Jan. 3, and Georgetown captured a 69-63 win. In that game, Georgetown's Malik Mack scored 20 of his game-high 26 points in the second half. It's been a rough month for the Hoyas since, as they have dropped six of eight overall to fall out of at-large consideration for the NCAA Tournament. "It's been somewhat of a frustrating January with coming out of Syracuse (victorious on Dec. 14) and not having the same lineup consistently," Georgetown coach Ed Cooley said. "I give our kids a lot of credit. Coming off of a very disturbing loss against a high-quality opponent (St. John's), for us to respond the way we did (Friday), in particular, the second half defensively. We were able to close it out. When you're building and growing, you have to expect something like that." Thomas Sorber and Micah Peavy lead a balanced scoring attack for Georgetown, with Sorber averaging 14.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per game while Peavy is scoring at a 14.4 ppg clip. --Field Level Media