Xavier Survives First Half Georgetown Barrage To Bounce Back

Xavier needed to work on perimeter defense.

Creighton made 14 3-point shots on Sunday when the Musketeers lost its first ever Big East game in Omaha on Sunday.  The first half was similar.  The Georgetown Hoyas made seven of 11 from beyond the arc in the first half before Xavier rallied from a 17-point deficit to win 80-67 at the Cintas Center.

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"I was upset with our effort in the first half," Xavier coach Chris Mack said.  "You can't cool your way through a game against a team like Georgetown, you know you scored that's ok, we get to score now.  The next thing you know you don't score a couple times and you're down."

Xavier (14-4, 4-1) trailled 42 to 29 at halftime, due in large part to Georgetown's (11-5, 3-2) ability to hit the 3-point shot.

Xavier scored the first seven points of the second half but Markel Starks and Reggie Cameron hit 3's in response.  Starks scored on a layup with 15:00 minutes left to give Georgetown its biggest lead.

"I am proud of our team.  We closed the gap in the second half then the next thing you know they hit a couple 3's and we were down farther than we were before.  We haven't been down like that in quite awhile.  To be able to take that second punch says a lot."

Xavier players took the coaches halftime advice to mount a comeback from that point on.  Georgetown's zone rendered the Musketeers cold in the first half but the home team was able to get the Hoyas out of it.

"We have a resilient team," Justin Martin said.  "We have a next-play mentality."

The Musketeers were forced to look inward to fight back.

"In the lockerroom after the first half, we had to take a long hard look in the mirror," Isaiah Philmore said.

The Musketeers started to execute on the defensive end, then started making shots of their own.

By the eight minute mark of the second half, James Farr made two free throws after he was fouled after making a hard fought offensive rebound. that closed the gap to two.

"We became a team.  We were tighter.  We needed to talk more and we did," said Semaj Christon, who led Xavier with 18 points.

The team picked its star up in the second half.  Two quick fouls at the 9:05 mark and the 8:57 mark put Christon on the bench with four fouls.  Xavier trailed 61-56 at the time.

In his absence, Xavier held Georgetown to a single field goal and built a 70-67 lead.  Georgetown never scored again.  They were shut out over the final 6:14.

"It's a great feeling that when you go out the team steps it up," Christon said.

The Hoyas admitted to a little fatigue.  It was their third game this week, all on the road.

"That was a very good team at the other end," Georgetown's coach John Thompson III said.  "There was some of that (fatigue) but not only didn't we score in the last six minutes.  They (Xavier) scored every way possible.  They guarded us better in the second half.  We didn't execute.  In hindsight we didn't stick to our offense."

Leading Georgetown scorer Markel Starks, who had 19 points, wouldn't use fatigue as an excuse either.

"We just couldn't score," Starks said.  "I'm not putting the whole blame on fatigue.  We need to fight through it.  If you look back on the whole year, we've either had a good first half or a good second half.  We haven't put it all together yet."

D'Vaunte Smith-Rivera had 18 points for Georgetown.  Smith-Rivera committed to Xavier at one time then changed his mind.

Xavier had four players in double figures.  Dee Davis scored 17.  Philmore scored 14.  Martin contributed 10 points.  Farr scored some key points off the bench and finished with nine.