Villanova will look to rebound after a rare home loss when it visits Georgetown on Saturday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
The No. 11-ranked Wildcats (13-5, 6-2 Big East) dropped a 57-54 decision to Marquette on Wednesday, snapping their 29-game winning streak at their on-campus arena.
Villanova’s last loss in this cozy arena was a 76-68 overtime decision against Furman on Nov. 17, 2018.
“You play a game like that and you go back and look at a lot of things,” Wildcats head coach Jay Wright said. “Every possession in every part of the game is critical. I thought we battled right to the end, but they made more plays than we did.”
Villanova has a veteran-laden group led by Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels.
Ever-improving Eric Dixon had another strong game as he tied his career high with 15 points. Dixon arguably is the most improved player on the Wildcats this season.
“He’s confident in himself,” Gillespie said of Dixon. “I know that for a fact and I’m really confident in him just from the last two years and how much work he’s put in, just working out, all the little things he’s done to get here. When you’re able to throw it inside and he can score and make really good decisions, make the right passes, make the right plays — that’s good for us.”
Georgetown hopes to avoid a sixth consecutive loss on Saturday afternoon.
The Hoyas (6-9, 0-4) dropped an 83-75 decision to No. 21 Providence on Thursday. They haven’t won since Dec. 15, an 85-73 victory over Howard.
Georgetown has looked especially out of sync in conference action.
“Things didn’t go as smooth as I would have liked for it to have gone, but I thought my guys showed resilience in terms of fighting back,” Hoyas head coach Patrick Ewing said after the loss to the Friars. “It could have easily gone either way.”
Donald Carey led the Hoyas with 21 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Kaiden Rice added 19 points off the bench.
Carey’s performance was impressive considering he had just been released from COVID-19 protocol. Carey tied his career high with five 3-pointers, initially set in a game against St. John’s on Dec. 20, 2020.
“I thought he played great, especially coming out of protocol,” Ewing said. “He’s been shut down for 10, 11 days. We had to take our time getting him back into shape.”
The Hoyas have started poorly in most of their games, most notably during the current skid. While they were able to battle back and make the game close, the result was another loss.
“I didn’t think it took a lot out of us,” Ewing said. “We started out slow unfortunately, but we fought back and cut it to three at halftime.”
–Field Level Media
