Xavier Comeback Dumps Hoyas

Zach Hankins and Tyrique Jones combined for 42 points and 20 rebounds as the Xavier Musketeers erased a 17-point deficit to eclipse the Georgetown Hoyas, 81-75.

Trailing 39-22 with 3:49 in the first half, Xavier put together a 17-0 run that put them even with 18:29 to go in the game.

Xavier (10-7, 2-2) controlled the second half maintaining a steady seven-point margin over the last seven minutes.

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Jesse Govan led Georgetown, (11-5, 1-2) with 27 points and eight rebounds.  Freshman James Akinjo scored 13 for the Hoyas.  Greg Malinowski scored 12.  The Hoyas connected on their first six 3-point shots but were 4-for-21 after that.

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"We stopped sharing the ball.  We needed to make another pass to find the open man,' Georgetown Patrick Ewing said.  "They went to a zone.  We had to stop shooting threes.  When they went to the zone, we should have gotten the ball inside.  That's where we lost the game.  They had 48 points in the paint. We had 28.  They got it into the paint and we didn't."

The Musketeers snapped a two-game losing streak.  Georgetown lost its second straight game. Naji Marshall scored 13 for the Musketeers.  Paul Scruggs contributed 10 points to the cause.

Hankins scored 23 points and had 10 rebounds.  Jones had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

The Hoyas scorched the nets with six 3-point baskets in six tries to put the Musketeers on their heals.  Georgetown opened an 11-point lead midway through the first half on the strength of those long range scores and a 51.7 shooting percentage.  The Hoyas missed 15 times in the first 17 minutes of the game but collected seven offensive rebounds.

"We had our hands full with Jesse Govan.  Our guys stayed with it," Xavier coach Travis Steele said.  "We went to a 3-2 zone that got us some run outs at the end of the half. I tell our guys we have to celebrate each win in the Big East. They were getting a lot of second and third shots early we had to fix that."

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Xavier went ice cold for 2:21 in between scores missing all four of its shots but closed in at 39-30 at the 2:00 mark with an 8-0 run.  Xavier scored the last four points of the half to extend its run to 12-0 on a layup by Zach Hankins and a coast to coast drive in the waning seconds by Marshall closed the half with Xavier trailing 39-34.

"We take what coach says really seriously," Hankins said.  "We took the 12 points into halftime.  None of us were hanging our heads."

Tonight was the first time that Hankins and Jones spent a lot of time on the floor together and it paid off.   They stayed out of foul trouble by switching off on Govan.  They worked on getting the Georgetown big man out of the game.

"Having those two guys together is a good look for us," Steele said. "We've been playing with four guards all year.  We only have two bigs.  As long as they stray out of foul trouble, we can do that."

The Musketeers played without one of it leading scorers and most experienced players, Quentin Goodin, who has been hobbled with a knee injury.

"Q's knee is day-to-day.  He participated in shoot around but he wasn't ready," Steele said.

Xavier is now 14-4 in the all-time series.