Souley Boum scored a season-high 28 points as Xavier pulled away for a 102-89 win over Georgetown in a high-scoring Big East opener Friday night in Washington, D.C.
Five players scored in double figures for the Musketeers (9-3, 1-0 Big East), who have won five straight games.
Zach Freemantle poured in 17 on 7-of-11 shooting, while Jack Nunge chipped in 18 points and hauled in 12 rebounds. Adam Kunkel also added 15 points and drilled four of five 3-pointers in the second half, and Colby Jones had 12 points.
Primo Spears scored 22 points and Qudus Wahab scored 11 of his 16 points in the first half for the Hoyas (5-7, 0-1 Big East), who have lost their last 20 regular-season Big East matchups.
Georgetown made their first two 3-pointers in the second half to cut Xavier’s lead to 47-46, but the Musketeers made 11 of their next 13 shots to take a commanding 72-59 lead following Cesare Edwards’ thunderous two-handed jam with 12:05 to play.
The Hoyas clawed to within 77-73 following an 8-0 stretch, but Boum responded with a personal eight-point run to push Xavier’s lead back up to 12 entering the under-eight timeout.
Georgetown never pulled within nine against a Xavier team that shot a sizzling 9-for-13 from three-point range in the second half.
Overall, the Musketeers canned a season-high 41 field goals and 14 3-pointers and held a 41-27 rebounding advantage.
Georgetown shot an efficient 52 percent from the field and committed just six turnovers, but the Hoyas made just six of 17 3-pointers and left 13 points at the free throw line on 19-32 shooting.
The Musketeers relied on their perimeter shooting in a competitive first half, canning five shots from beyond the arc, while the Hoyas flipped seven Xavier turnovers into eight points to keep pace.
Georgetown went nearly four minutes without a field goal toward the end of the half as Xavier’s lead ballooned to nine, and the Musketeers took a 43-38 lead into the break.
The Hoyas played Friday’s game with a heavy heart following the death of Louis Orr, who served on Georgetown’s staff since 2017 and spent five years as an assistant coach under Patrick Ewing. Orr and Ewing were teammates on the New York Knicks during Ewing’s first three seasons in the NBA.
–Field Level Media
