Feb. 9, 2015 WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University men's basketball team practiced on campus Monday morning and headed north to New Jersey, where the Hoyas will play the second of two-straight road games, on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at Seton Hall.
Tipoff at the Prudential Center is slated for 7 p.m. The game will be shown live on FOX Sports 1, with Tim Brando calling the play-by-play and Jim Spanarkel serving as the color analyst. Fans locally can tune in to the radio call of Rich Chvotkin on ESPN 980 AM.
Georgetown enters the game with a 15-8 overall record and a 7-5 mark in the BIG EAST following a 69-53 loss at No. 6 Villanova on Saturday. It was the third loss in the last four games for the Hoyas.
The Hoyas are ranked No. 21 in the country in the latest RPI Ratings and are No. 2 in the nation by strength of schedule. Georgetown is one of five BIG EAST schools in the top-50 of the RPI Ratings, and one of seven in the top-55.
In Saturday's loss at Villanova, freshman forward L.J. Peak (Gaffney, S.C./Gaffney) scored a team-high 15 points, but Georgetown fell behind and could not overcome an early deficit en route to the loss. Senior guard Aaron Bowen (Jacksonville, Fla./QEA [N.C.]) added 10 points, three rebounds and two steals.
Junior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central/Oak Hill) leads Georgetown, and ranks fifth in the BIG EAST, with 15.2 points per game. He has scored at least 20 points five times this season and has 16 career 20+ games. Smith-Rivera also ranks among the BIG EAST leaders in assists (3.3/game) and three-point field goals (47) and three-point percentage (38.2%).
Senior center Joshua Smith (Kent, Wash./Kentwood/UCLA) is second on the team in scoring with 11.7 points and leads the team with 6.4 rebounds. Smith also ranks second in the BIG EAST in field goal percentage, connecting on 64.3 percent of his shots from the floor (99-of-154).
Senior guard Jabril Trawick (Philadelphia, Pa./Abington Friends) has been one of the team's most consistent players this season as he is fourth on the team in scoring (8.2 ppg), second in assists (2.2 apg) and fourth in rebounding (3.9 rpg). Senior forward Mikael Hopkins (Hyattsville, Md./DeMatha) is scoring 4.7 points per game, but is second on the team with 5.5 rebounds and leads the team with 1.8 blocked shots per game, which ranks fourth in the league. Bowen is fifth on the team with 6.2 points per game.
Freshman forward Isaac Copeland (Raleigh, N.C./Bridgeton Academy [N.H.]) is one of four freshmen playing significant minutes this year, joined by Peak, who has started all but one game. Peak is third on the team in scoring with 9.0 points and is contributing 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists, while forward Paul White (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) is seventh on the team with 5.5 points and 3.0 rebounds. Copeland is averaging 5.9 points and 3.1 rebounds and freshman guard Tre Campbell (Washington, D.C./St. John's College HS) is averaging 3.1 points and 1.1 rebounds.
Georgetown's freshmen have combined to average 23.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game. They have accounted for 37.2 percent of the team's minutes played (1748 of 4700) and for 33.1 percent of the team's scoring (541 of 1633 points).
The game with Seton Hall on Tuesday will be the 98th all-time meeting between the schools, with Georgetown leading the head-to-head series, 55-42. The Pirates won both games between the teams last season. The Blue & Gray have won seven of the last 11 games overall and has a 7-4 record against Seton Hall under Head Coach John Thompson III. The 98 meetings with Seton Hall are the second-most against any Georgetown opponent.