Syracuse Orange at Georgetown Hoyas Betting Odds

Opening Line: Syracuse +2 / Georgetown -2 O/U 146

Time: 7 PM EST Thursday February 18, 2010 on ESPN2

Tonight in a Big East match up, which is a huge rivalry, the 10th ranked Georgetown Hoyas host the 5th ranked Syracuse Orange. Syracuse is tied atop the Big East with Villanova, who they meet at Nova later this month, and the winner of the Big East may get a coveted #1 seed in the Big Dance. While Georgetown is 3 games back in conference play they can move up in the rankings and improve their NCAA tournament positioning by winning the remainder of their games.

This season Georgetown is 11-2 at home and 11-9 ATS and Syracuse is 7-0 on the road and 15-7 ATS.

Both teams lost Big East games on Valentines Day, as Georgetown lost to Rutgers 71-68 and Syracuse lost to Louisville 66-60.

This game will be held at the Verizon Center, where Georgetown has smoked 2 top 10 teams and tonight they will try to hand Syracuse their first road loss of the season.

The Orange have the best team FG% in the nation (52.2%), but they have to shoot better than the 41.1% they shot in their loss to Louisville.

Hoyas' C Greg Monroe (15.5 ppg 9.5 rpg) has a tall task tonight, as he is the only real inside threat Georgetown has while the Orange have 3 frontcourt players averaging in double figures in forwards Wesley Johnson (16 ppg 8.8 rpg) and Kris Joseph (11.3 ppg 5.3 rpg) and C Arinze Onuaku (10.3 ppg 4.8 rpg).

The Hoyas have a solid backcourt with guards Austin Freeman (16.8 ppg) and Chris Wright (14.2 ppg) and these 2 will need to shoot the rock well tonight to open up the lane for Monroe.

Wright may the player that the Orange really have to key on, as when he scores at least 10 points the Hoyas are 16-0. In the first meeting of these 2 teams this season, which the Orange won, Wright only scored 7 points.

Syracuse leading scorer Johnson has struggled with his shot since injuring a thumb on his shooting hand a couple weeks ago. Since that time he is only shooting 28.6% from the field.

Georgetown is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 home games, 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games as a favorite of 0.5-6.5, and has an Over record of 5-1 on their last 6 home games.

Syracuse is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 road games, 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games as an underdog, and has an Under record of 6-0 in their last 6 road games.

Syracuse is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games against Georgetown.

Our Selection : Syracuse crushed Georgetown 73-56 back on January 25th as 5.5 pt home favorite. They visit the Hoyas in the Verizon Center tonight with the opening betting line set at Georgetwon -1. We're going to stay away from a bet on a side and look at the total. The Hoyas are allowing 65.5 points per game at home this season while the Orange have held Big East opponents to 66.6 PPG. The earlier game fell way under the closing total and we expect this game to do the same. Take Under 144 points.