Hoyas start slow, never recover

January 1, 2015 - Wednedsay's BIG EAST New Year's Eve Marathon had a decisive home team advantage going into Georgetown's 10p start at Xavier, as the previous four home teams won. That trend continued in the night cap, with the Musketeers (10-3) walking away with a 70-53 win in Cincinnati.

Georgetown (8-4) struggled from the outset, going down 11 in the first half. Whether attributed to the very late start, a Cintas Center crowd described as "electric" by Fox Sports 1 color analyst Bob Wenzel or good Xavier defense, John Thompson III's team had problems putting the ball in the basket; for almost three and a half minutes, they scored one point. To be down only 31-25 at intermission was a victory of sorts.

The Hoyas came out with more verve in the second half, pulling to within one after D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera's jump shot just over two and a half minutes into stanza. The junior guard led all scorers with 18 points, going 5-9 from the field. His 1-3 mark from three point land was emblematic of the Hoyas' long distance woes, where the team shot just 15.4% (2-13).

Overall, G'Town managed just 36.2% shooting, though many of their looks rattled in and out, like freshman Paul White's open 15 footer with 4:38 to play, a shot that would have brought G'Town's deficit under 10 points.

For the game Xavier went 41.7% from the floor and 6-12 on three ball shooting. Head Musketeer Chris Mack's team outscored the Hoyas 19-10 over the second period's first three TV timeouts and never looked back, expanding the lead through late fouling.

Key to their success was sophomore forward Jalen Reynolds who scored a team high 17 points, including 11 in the second stanza. Senior guard Dee Davis joined him in double figure scoring with 12 points, while also adding a game high five assists. Junior guard Remy Abell equaled Davis in scoring, and made life somewhat difficult for Smith-Rivera when defending him.

Senior center Joshua Smith was not as effective as needed, scoring 10 points - just two in the first half - and tallying four rebounds. The Hoyas were led in rebounding by senior forward Mikael Hopkins and classmate, swingman Jabril Trawick; both pulled down five. That pair's collective carom haul equaled the mark of Xavier sophomore forward James Farr, though G'Town did tally two more rebounds than Xavier (33-31).

The victory in Cintas - Xavier has won 87.8% of its game there - was Mack's 121st, ranking him third in team history. His squad travels to DePaul for a Saturday, 2p tip off.

G'Town also next plays January 3rd, welcoming Creighton to Verizon Center at 430p.

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