Providence and Xavier meet Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati with both teams needing a win to generate momentum in Big East play.
Xavier (9-7, 1-4) comes into Saturday’s game on a three-game losing streak, including a one-point loss at Marquette on Wednesday night. The Musketeers struggled offensively in the first half, trailing by 10 at the break before rallying in the second half.
“We had a lot of guys in the first half lose confidence. You could tell with their body language,” Xavier head coach Richard Pitino said. “We got the ball moving a little bit more, got some player movement. It was much better in the second half.”
Tre Carroll leads the Musketeers with 15.8 points per game and a 46.9 field-goal percentage. Roddie Anderson III (12.8 ppg) and Jovan Milicevic (10.3) join Carroll as Xavier’s three scorers averaging double figures.
Carroll has struggled over his last three games, however, seeing his scoring average drop by nearly a full point per game.
The Musketeers have only crossed the 70-point mark twice in five Big East games.
Like the Musketeers, Providence (8-7, 1-3) is also coming off a crushing loss Wednesday at the hands of Connecticut. Leading by as many as 13 points in the second half, the Friars ended up falling 103-98 in overtime at home.
“It was an imperfect storm for us and a perfect storm for them of really them making some big-time plays and us having some really unfortunate plays down the stretch,” head coach Kim English said. “These games are tough to recover from, but we have to stay together.”
The Friars also lost a double-overtime game at Butler on Dec. 13, falling 113-110. All three of their Big East losses are by five points or less, with their one Big East win a 77-71 victory at St. John’s three days into 2026.
Providence averages 89.5 points per game, but it also allows 84.1 points per game.
Jason Edwards is the Friars’ leading scorer at 17.3 points per game. Jaylin Sellers (15.7), Stefan Vaaks (13.3) and Jamier Jones (10.9) join Edwards as Providence’s players averaging double-digit points.
