Washington, D.C. – The Connecticut Huskies have made their ranked Georgetown Hoyas.
UConn is hoping to put the brakes on a three-game slide as the team fell to 14-6 overall and an even 4-4 in conference after suffering a 50-48 setback at home to Notre Dame on Sunday. It was team's lowest scoring output of the campaign, and it will try to even its record in true road games this season to 3-3 with a win tonight.
Georgetown is coming off a loss of its own, as the team stumbled at Pittsburgh last Saturday in a 72-60 final. Still, the Hoyas are 16-4 on the year, and they have won six of their first nine league tilts. GU is 10-1 at home this season, which includes a 3-1 mark against Big East foes.
Georgetown owns a 33-27 advantage in all-time series with UConn, but the Huskies won both meetings last season, including a 79-62 victory in the second round of the 2011 Big East Conference Tournament.
Jeremy Lamb scored 16 points and Andre Drummond logged a double-double consisting of 15 points and 11 rebounds, but those efforts went for naught as Connecticut lost a defensive battle to visiting Notre Dame by a scant two points. The Huskies shot 40.4 percent from the field, while the Fighting Irish were just 36.2 percent accurate. However, UND nailed seven three-pointers to UConn's three, and the Irish scored 26 points in the paint compared to a mere 10 for the home team. Lamb (17.9 ppg) continues to pace the Huskies in scoring thanks to his ultra-efficient 50.2 percent shooting effort, and he has a club- best 44 three-pointers as well. Shabazz Napier (14.3 ppg, 6.1 apg) and Drummond (10.0 ppg, 7.8 rpg) round out the double-digit scorers for coach Jim Calhoun's club, which puts up 69.8 ppg in hitting 47.0 percent of its total shots, while limiting the opposition to 62.2 ppg on 36.9 percent field goal accuracy. The Huskies are +5.5 in rebounding margin, but suffer from a turnover differential of -2.4.
Georgetown's starting five accounted for only 35 points in the recent loss to Pittsburgh, as the team shot 42.1 percent from the field, despite missing 12 of its 17 three-point attempts. Otto Porter came off the bench to score a club-best 14 points, while Hollis Thompson and Henry Sims chipped in with 11 and 10 points, respectively. No Hoya grabbed more than six rebounds (Porter), as they were out-muscled on the glass to the tune of a 35-23 deficit. Pitt went a dismal 3-of-13 from beyond the arc, but shot an impressive 52.1 percent from the field overall, and the Panthers claimed a 19-7 edge in points from the foul line and cruised to the double-digit victory despite committing 17 turnovers. After 20 games, Jason Clark (15.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg) leads the club in scoring on the strength of his 49.5 percent shooting effort, while Thompson (13.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and Sims (11.8 ppg, 5.5 rpg) have been productive contributors as well for coach John Thompson III's team, which averages 71.4 ppg on 47.1 percent field goal accuracy, which includes a 36.1 percent effort from long range, while defensively holding the opposition to 60.0 ppg on typical shooting outputs of 39.9 percent overall and 29.0 percent from beyond the arc.
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