It was no secret the Xavier Musketeers had been struggling through three straight losses coming into a Big East battle against the Georgtown Hoyas
Coach Travis Steele tol his team they had to play to our identity. "I told our guys that it didn't matter if it was five guards or five bigs, we were going to play the guys who earned it in practice."
Steele put a bigger lineup against a good rebounding team. Zach Freemantle started along with Jason Carter and Tyrique Jones. The big lineup paid off in a 66-57 win over the Hoyas.
Georgetown starting lineup included 7' senior center Omer Yurts3even and 6'8" Jamorko Pickett.. Xavier used a rebounding advantage 48-38 to stop the losing streak.
Xavier (13-6, 2-4) won for the first time since a 75-67 win over St. John's on January 5. There were 16 rebounds among the 48 rebounds and the Musketeers turned that into enough points to earn the win over Georgetown (12-8, 2-5).
"We have to use our quickness to our advantage," Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing said.. "Sometimes you have to be like a junkyard dog when a team is bigger than you. They got 14 offensive rebounds. They got 22 points off that."
The larger Xavier lineup put pressure on Yurtseven, who was hampered by early foul trouble.
"I don't know if it was foul trouble or not but we need him to play bigger," Ewing said. "When he came back he still only got to rebounds. We regrouped in the second half but we go too far in the hole."
Xavier led 35-23 at halftime and held off the Hoyas in the second half as the lead dwindled to eight with 3:00 left.
Xavier got a needed boost from Kyky Tandy, who scored 11 of his career-high 18 points in the second half. He became the first freshman to score 18 points in a game since teammate Naji Marshall tallied 20 against Seton Hall in his freshman year two years ago. Marshall matched Tandy with 18 points to share the high scoring honors for Xavier.
Mac McClung was the leading scorer with 19.
"He's a bucket machine," Steele said of McClung.
Jones who is averaging a double-double for the season pulled in a game-high 13 rebounds, four on the offensive end. Freshman Freemantle had four offensive rebounds among his seven. Josh Carter pulled in 10 rebounds. Jones with 10 and Carter with 11 joined Tandy and Marshall as double digit scorers.
Pickett led Georgetown with 10 rebounds.
"We were outrebounded at Marquette," Jones said. "We had a drill in practice that we used to help us. If we couldn't get the rebound we were to tip it to keep it alive."
Steele dusted off the drill.
"It was a drill we used but one of our guys got hurt so we got away from it," Steele said.
Xavier played without Quentin Goodin, who was hurt in warmups but was a positive presence on the sidelines. "He tweaked his knee. He was unavailable to play. You could hear Q in the huddles," Steele said. "You know he wanted to be out there but he stayed with us on the bench. It was really good to hear.."
The win gave the Musketeers a 15-5 advantage over Georgetown all-time.
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