Hoyas sail into Pirate waters

February 10, 2015 - Tonight at 7p EST, Georgetown's Hoyas take on Seton Hall in Newark, NJ. The contest, broadcast by Fox Sports 1 and having a radio call available on WTEM 980, takes place at the Brick City's Prudential Center. Follow it also on our interactive real time, in-game chat line.

Those interested in checking out the contest live, click here for tickets. Multiple, lower bowl seats exist!

The Hoyas (15-8, 7-5 in the BIG EAST), having lost three of their last four contests understand they must get a win - the losing spurt has dropped them from first to fourth in the conference. Having post season tournament success hopes, G'Town must right their ship if they are to get wins in both BIG EAST Championship and NCAA Tournament action.

Speaking of ships, who are these Pirates?

Seton Hall (15-8, 5-6, seventh in league), coached by Kevin Willard and losers of two straight games are the BIG EAST's eighth highest scoring team at 69.9 ppg, while holding teams to 64.8 ppg, good for third in the league. Junior guard Sterling Gibbs leads the Pirates, dropping 18.7 points in conference contests, third league-wide. Angel Delgado, a freshman forward has pulled down 10.1 rebounds in BIG EAST games, good for second in the conference, while Gibbs finds teammates for scores four times per game - fourth highest in the league.

Conversely the Hoyas, led by John Thompson III are sixth in scoring offense amongst league teams, fifth in scoring defense, coming in at 71 and 65 points each time out respectively. The squad is led in BIG EAST scoring by junior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera's 15.7 points per game, senior center Joshua Smith's 6.4 caroms are tops and Smith-Rivera paces G'Town with 3.3 dimes per game over the season; Smith is eighth amongst league rebounders, Smith-Rivera is the fifth highest conference scorer and slots 11th in assists.

Yesterday, Thompson III , Smith and Smith-Rivera were made available for a pre-game presser, with each discussing:

Thompson - Losing, turnovers, bad starts, Smith's play, Delgado, freshman SH wing Isaiah Whitehead, importance of this game, conference scheduling, freshman Pirate guard Khadeen Carrington and Syracuse's recent NCAA compliance issues.

Smith - The Villanova game (a hard loss for G'Town), the challenge of Seton Hall, his personal play, the theme of G'Town's rough stretch.

Smith-Rivera - Losing, turnovers, Villanova game, SH's guards, importance of game, freshmen's response to losing, his role in helping team manage losing streak, how to manage losing.

For their complete interviews, see Premium Court.

Rest assured each understands the significance of tonight's contest.

Excerpts:

-JT3 on Smith - "He has to be better. We have to do a better job of helping him, so I'm not just going to put the onus squarely on his shoulders. But we need more production from him".

-Smith on keeping Delgado off the boards - "It's very important...He's averaging about nine a game".

-DSR on Carrington SH frosh guard - "He's good. Freshman right? He's pretty good. Lefty. Can kind of do everything, a little bit of everything".