Verizon Center – Washington, DC
Tip-off: Monday, 7:00 p.m. ET
Line: TBD

Longwood will look to test No. 15 Georgetown’s stifling defense as the two teams square off at the Verizon Center on Monday night.

The Hoyas defense has been tremendous lately, giving up an average of 41.8 PPG over their past four games. That included keeping two major conference foes, Tennessee and Texas, to 36 and 41 points, respectively. After a rough 0-4 start to the year, Longwood has won two of its past four games (2-0 ATS) with strong play from freshman forward Michael Kessens, who is developing into a double-double machine with 13.0 PPG and 11.4 RPG for the season.

Can Georgetown score a monster win on Monday night? For the answer, connect to College Basketball Best Bets for all the Expert picks throughout the entire 2012-13 season. The StatFox experts are a collective 51% ATS (108-105-6) in college basketball Best Bets for the season, led by StatFox Gary, who is 10-6 ATS (63%) since Nov. 26 and 59% ATS (23-16) for the season. StatFox Brian is 9-6 ATS (60%) since Nov. 30 and sits at 50% ATS (25-25-2) for the season. StatFox Dave, who predicted Creighton would beat Akron by 18 points on Sunday in a game the Bluejays won by 16, is also 50% ATS (39-39-2) for the year.

Carey, 6-foot-4 junior guard, has been a workhorse this season, playing 35.3 MPG. He’s a threat to score from all over the floor with 2.5 threes per game, but he has also been a defensive menace this season with 2.5 SPG. Kessens has also been strong on the defensive end with 1.6 SPG and 2.1 BPG. Nik Brown, a 6-foot-3 freshman guard, rounds out the double-digit scorers at 10.4 PPG, but he is making just 30% of his shots, including 5-of-21 threes (24%). The real issue for this crew is limiting its turnovers—the Lancers are third-worst in Division I with 20.5 TPG. Kessens and Brown are the worst offenders with a combined 9.0 TOPG, while 6-foot-6 forward Frank Holloway (7.5 PPG, 6.0 RPG) also needs to cut down his mistakes with one assist and seven turnovers in his two games.

Georgetown has three double-digit scorers, paced by 6-foot-8 forward Otto Porter (11.7 PPG, 7.3 RPG), who has a good jump shot to aid his size and post moves. He is hitting 1.0 threes per game this year on a 47% clip, also adding 1.7 BPG and 2.1 SPG. Fellow forward Greg Whittington leads the team in MPG at 36.8, adding 11.5 PPG and 8.0 RPG. He too is hitting 1.1 threes per game, but he has struggled to find his stroke with a 27% conversion rate from deep. Markel Starks rounds out the crew at 11.1 PPG, hitting 1.1 threes per game and swiping 1.3 SPG. Head coach John Thompson III doesn’t like to go deep into his bench, so there is a lot of pressure on this crew to play smart and stay in the game. They should win this, but given how Georgetown is playing lately, a close one could be in the cards.