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Muskies Find Formula on Road!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/10/2010
Xavier learned some hard lessons in non-conference losses at Kansas State, Butler and Wake Forest. In general, they now know things will seldom be easy away from Cintas. At K-State,the Muskies were outmuscled by a veteran physical team. A slow start doomed them and they never threatened although they did compete in the second half. At Butler, XU again started slowly, but fought through the rough patches and took a late lead but succumbed to some home cooking (an incompetent clock operator and lax Horizon League official) and a great player (Gordon Hayward). At Wake, X delivered consistent effort but failed to finish at the end of regulation and the first OT losing in double overtime.
Those experiences combined with a semester break basketball boot camp orchestrated by coach Mack and staff yielded two stirring Muskie road wins to open the 16 game A-10 regular season.
I watched Thursday's 68-62 victory over La Salle at a sports bar in downtown Honolulu. Both Alabama and Texas fans tried to commandeer my TV, but I fought them off. The Muskies lost that 20 point lead, but never let the Explorers get ahead.
Late game execution lessons learned in Indy and Winston Salem resulted in strong performance at Philly. The defense forced strained La Salle shots and netted a series of stops when LU had chances to take the lead. Crawford, Holloway and Jackson found ways to score just enough to salt away the win.
The team stayed on the road for Sunday's Noon start at GW. The Colonials sported an 11-3 record (aided by a Mr. Softee schedule) but they'd returned to their scrambling maniacal full court style using 12 players - a total contrast to La Salle's walk it up half court approach. It took XU a half to figure things out. GW led 41-30 at the break.
The Muskies were living by the three pointer and losing most of the hustle plays. Damien Hollis was unguardable scoring 17. X turned it over 11 times and got creamed on the boards. GW devoured the Xavier packline defense. X competed much more physically in half two but GW managed to stay ahead by 8 to 11 points.
Still Muskies' switching defenses started to take their toll. Chris Mack mixed a 3-2 zone in with the sluffing man to man. Andrew Taylor played huge minutes and helped frustrate Hollis (just 6 points in half two). Taylor chipped in 4 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals.
X began flipping the rebound numbers. GW led 23-13 on the boards 5 minutes into the second half and Xavier won over 40 minutes 39-33. That's domination (26-10)!!!
X still trailed by 10 -- 60 to 50 with 7:52 left. Not to panic!! Not after K-St, Butler and Wake!! The Muskies embarked on an amazing 13-0 run over the next 5 minutes and 40 seconds. GW failed to score on 9 straight possessions. X whipped them on the boards over that happy span 11 to 1.
It was a near perfect marriage of stingy packline defense, seal them off rebounding and balanced scoring (Crawford 4 points, Jackson 3, Love 2, Holloway 2, McLean 2). Xavier grabbed the lead then buried the free throws to close out a 76-69 win.
Jason Love was huge!! 19 points, 13 rebounds (7 offensive boards). Jamel McLean had 7 rebounds (4 offensive). Jordan Crawford scored 18 and added 7 more rebounds. Terrell Holloway made 13-of-14 foul shots and attacked the basket after halftime even though the officials just swallowed their whistles and let GW knock him around. Holloway did a great defensive job on GW PG Tony Taylor. He couldn't initiate the offense. Taylor got so frustrated he literally ran over Terrell and inexplicably Holloway was called for a phantom charge!!!
Special mention to Dante Jackson. He tweaked an ankle early but kept playing finishing with 8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. X would have been in deep trouble without Dante as Mark Lyons sat out his second straight with a knee bruise. Brad Redford drilled 3 first half 3's and got his own shot each time with nifty ball fakes.
The Muskies start the A-10 with a flourish and two road wins. Their 10-5 overall record is good enough right now for a Top 30 RPI thanks to the 6th hardest schedule in the country.
This week X begins classes and hosts Charlotte and Dayton at Cintas. The home record is exemplary (7-0, 87PPG, 64P on defense). Dating back to Dec 2008 the Muskies have won 16 straight at Cintas. They have won 24 A-10 home games in a row over 3 seasons. Those numbers insure nothing but hopefully they freak out the Charlotte 49ers and UD Flyers.
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