St. John’s vs. Georgetown Odds
Washington, DC (AP) – As Austin Freeman goes, so goes Georgetown, and the Big East preseason player of the year appears to have regained his shooting touch.
Continuing his torrid shooting against St. John’s, however, might not be easy.
Freeman, who had his worst performance of the season in a loss to the Red Storm three weeks ago and has regularly struggled in this series, looks to lead the 21st-ranked Hoyas to a third consecutive victory when they host St. John’s on Wednesday night.
Current college basketball odds and oddsmakers from online sports book SBGGLOBAL.com have made Georgetown 8.5-point spread favorites for Wednesday’s game against St. John’s. Current college basketball public betting information shows that 66% of more than 178 bets for this game have been placed on St. John’s +8.5.
Freeman, third in the conference with 18.5 points per game, was named the Big East player of the week Monday after combining for 53 points on 16-of-25 shooting in wins at Rutgers and Seton Hall.
“I just wanted to come to Jersey and get these two wins, that was our focus,” Freeman said after scoring 28 in last Tuesday’s 80-75 win over the Pirates. “I wanted to be aggressive, see how the defenses were playing me and go from there.”
Defenses had been playing Freeman tough, and he and Georgetown (14-5, 3-4) had struggled before the trip.
The Hoyas had lost three in a row prior to beating Rutgers, with Freeman combining for 29 points on 32.3 percent shooting. When Freeman has trouble scoring, that usually spells trouble for Georgetown.
The Hoyas are 13-2 when Freeman reaches at least 14 points, but 1-3 when he fails to hit that mark. Georgetown, which is averaging 75.8 points and leading the Big East in shooting at 50.8 percent, scored 58, 59 and 57 points during its skid.
Freeman’s slump started in a 61-58 loss at St. John’s on Jan. 3, when he finished with a season-low six points on 2-of-10 shooting with four turnovers.
The poor showing shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. In five games against the Red Storm, Freeman is shooting 38.9 percent and averaging 9.2 points – his lowest career average against any Big East opponent.
The Hoyas have lost three of the last four meetings with St. John’s after winning the previous five.
The Red Storm’s win over Georgetown earlier this month kicked off their extraordinary eight-game stretch against Top 25 teams. They’ve gone 1-4 since beating the Hoyas, and will conclude this challenging portion of the schedule Sunday against third-ranked Duke.
St. John’s (11-7, 4-4) had a chance to beat then-No. 25 Cincinnati on Saturday, but went just 12 of 26 from the free-throw line and lost 53-51. Dwight Hardy, who entered Saturday’s game connecting on 90.7 percent of his free throws, missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 33.9 seconds to go with his team up by one.
Coach Steve Lavin’s team was 73 of 86 (84.9 percent) from the foul line in its previous four games.
“We took care of the basketball, we played through the post and we played aggressively on defense for 40 minutes,” Lavin said. “We asked them to do that and they did those three things. We just didn’t convert from the foul line. That was the difference.”
Hardy, who is nursing a right ankle sprain, is averaging 9.8 points on 35.6 percent shooting in his last five games after averaging 21.3 and shooting 52.3 percent in his previous four. He had 20 points against the Hoyas earlier this month.
The Red Storm’s win over Georgetown snapped a 14-game losing streak to Top 25 teams. They’ve still lost 31 straight road games against ranked opponents, however, since beating then-No. 22 Boston College 64-57 on Jan. 17, 2002.
Bet St. John’s vs. Georgetown Odds
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