The No.9 seed Connecticut Huskies take on the No.8 seed Georgetown Hoyas this Wednesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden to kick off the second round of the 2011 Big East Men?s Basketball Tournament. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m. and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Connecticut showed little signs of rust in its opening round game against No.16 seed DePaul after dropping four of its final five games to close out the regular season. The 97-71 victory over the Blue Demons as a 14 ½-point favorite was hardly a surprise from a team that was in the top 10 rankings earlier in the season. The win raised the Huskies record to 22-9 straight-up and to 14-11 against the spread.
This game was never in doubt as Connecticut kept the pressure on from the opening tip to build a 17 point lead by the half. Kemba Walker led the way for UConn in the Big East opener with a game-high 26 points while Jeremy Lamb added another 19 points in the winning effort. The Huskies completely dominated an out-manned DePaul team by outrebounding the Demons by a margin of 44-20.
Georgetown suffered its own slide down the stretch with four losses in its final five games including a 69-47 loss to Cincinnati as a four-point road underdog in the season finale. The Hoyas 10-8 SU record in conference play was just good enough to earn a bye in the first round. They finished the regular season 21-9 SU (15-14 ATS).
Austin Freeman comes into this tournament as Georgetown?s biggest scoring threat with an average 17.8 points a game. Chris Wright is the team?s second leading scorer with 13.1 points a game and he leads in assists with 5.4. The Hoyas are averaging 71 points a game and shooting 48 percent from the field.
The Huskies beat Georgetown 78-70 earlier in the season as a 2 ½-point home favorite, but this time around it?s the well-rested Hoyas turn to come away with the win to earn a shot at No.1 seed Pittsburgh in Thursday?s quarterfinals.
The Pick: Georgetown 74-71 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.