Pittsburgh Panthers at Georgetown Hoyas, Verizon Center, Washington, DC
Wednesday, January 12, 2011, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN
Opening Line: Georgetown -3
Current Line: Georgetown -3
Opening Total: 143
Current Total: 141
Money Line: Georgetown -140 / Pitt +120
The 22nd-ranked Georgetown Hoyas (12-4, 1-3 Big East) will try to bust an early-season conference slump when they host the fifth-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers (15-1, 3-0) on Wednesday. The Hoyas (-3) are off to their worst start in league play since the 2003-04 season and hope to hand the hot Panthers their first Big East loss of the year.
Georgetown is coming off back-to-back conference losses to St. John’s and West Virginia, giving a couple second-tier Big East teams even more confidence heading into the meat of the schedule. The latest setback for the Hoyas was a 65-59 home loss to the Mountaineers on Saturday as Austin Freeman continued to struggle.
Freeman has totaled just 17 points combined in the last two games, including 11 against West Virginia. Jason Clark was the only other Georgetown player to score in double figures with a team-high 16 points while nobody could stop Casey Mitchell and his game-high 28 for the Mountaineers. As a team, the Hoyas also missed 12 of their 17 attempts from 3-point range. They are 11-0 this season when shooting 33.3 percent or better from beyond the arc and will face a stiff test here defensively against Pitt.
The Panthers are riding a five-game winning streak since losing 83-79 to Tennessee back on December 11, which is their only blemish on an otherwise perfect record. However, they have not faired particularly well against the spread lately despite their success, failing to cover four of their last five lined games. They are coming off an 89-81 home win against Marquette on Saturday, missing out on an ATS victory by one point.
Ashton Gibbs paced four Pittsburgh players who scored in double figures against the Golden Eagles with 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting. The Panthers are 17-0 over the last two years when Gibbs makes more than half of his shots, and he went 3-for-16 in a 74-66 home loss to Georgetown a year ago.
That win by the Hoyas was Pitt’s lone home loss in 50 games, and the road team has won the last two head-to-head matchups in the series. The Panthers won in their last trip to the Verizon Center two years ago 70-54 behind 20 points and 17 rebounds from current NBA player DeJuan Blair. The UNDER has cashed in four of the last six games between the teams along with three of the past four for Georgetown overall.
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