Louisville Cardinals at Georgetown Hoyas, Verizon Center, Washington, DC
Monday, January 31, 2011, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN
Opening Line: Georgetown -4.5
Current Line: Georgetown -5
Opening Total: 144.5
Current Total: 143
Money Line: Georgetown -215 / Louisville +185
The 23rd-ranked Louisville Cardinals (17-4, 6-2 Big East) and 21st-ranked Georgetown Hoyas (16-5, 5-4) are both coming off huge road wins on Saturday against Top 10 opponents, but only one of them will obviously be able to stay hot after they meet on Monday. The Hoyas (-5) bring a four-game winning streak straight-up and against the spread back home to the Verizon Center with three of those wins coming on the road.
Georgetown pulled off a 69-66 victory at Villanova on Saturday behind another monster game from Big East Preseason Player of the Year Austin Freeman, who scored a game-high 30 points. While UConn’s Kemba Walker has garnered a lot of national attention and might end of winning the postseason award, Freeman has started to carry the Hoyas following a three-game losing streak. He is averaging just over 24 points in the last four games and also added a season-high six assists in the win over the Wildcats. Jason Clark was the only other Georgetown player to score in double figures with 10 points.
The Hoyas might be able to benefit from a fatigued Louisville team after the Cardinals beat the Huskies 79-78 in double overtime. Like Freeman, Peyton Siva came up big for his team, scoring a team-high 19 points and dishing out seven assists. Siva had scored the game-winning basket three days earlier in a 55-54 home win against West Virginia and picked up where he left off. Terrence Jennings added 16 points and 10 rebounds for Louisville while Preston Knowles and Kyle Kuric scored 15 apiece. The Cardinals also held Walker to 20 points on 7 of 23 shooting, including 2 of 10 from 3-point range.
Louisville has won four of its last five games overall but has not won three straight games since December 27. That corresponds directly to the start of conference play, as the Cardinals have followed the pattern of winning twice and then losing once through two cycles already. They are 2-2 so far in league road games, but the victory at Connecticut was their first away from home against a team with a winning conference record.
Georgetown earned its first win against a Big East team with a winning league mark period at Villanova and beat Louisville 70-60 on the road last year in their only meeting. The teams have split the last four meetings straight-up with the Cardinals going 3-1 ATS in those games. The UNDER is also 3-1 in the past four games between the teams.
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