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Check-Off Charlotte! Bring on Dayton!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/14/2010
Xavier started quickly (leading 14-5 just 5:08 into the game) and cruised to a solid 86-74 A-10 win over Charlotte at Cintas. The Muskies lead the league out of the gate at 3-0 (with 2 road wins). Dayton, St.Louis and Temple sit 2-0. XU extended its active home court win streak to 17 games. X hasn't lost a conference home game since Feb 28, 2006 on a bitter Senior Night to St. Joe's. In the interim Xavier has won 25 straight at Cintas against A-10 teams.
The Muskies smothered the UNCC guards. The 49ers struggled to feed their good post players and thus shot it horribly in the first half. X led at the break 44-28. Dante Jackson played his best basketball of the season for X (14 points with 4 made 3's-6 assists-3 rebounds-3 steals) despite fouling out with 7 minutes left. Jackson won MVP honors in the second UD game at Cintas last March with a similar high energy all court performance. He'll need a repeat Saturday against the Flyers.
Kenny Frease played his best floor game of the year-attacking the basket when guarded one-on-one (7 points) passing out of double teams (4 assists) and collecting 5 rebounds.
Overall the Muskies shared the ball and made the extra pass unselfishly leading to 18 assists on 26 baskets and a plus 50 FG%. X also attacked the bucket resulting in 34 FT attempts. There was some adversity. Both Frease and Jason Love were tagged with 2 fouls midway thru half one. Coach Mack sat them both and cobbled together a smalled line-up.
Andrew Taylor played key minutes making all 4 of his free throws as XU took advantage of the bonus. Jamel McLean held his ground inside against beefy Shamari Spears.And there was a rare Jeff Robinson sighting( He made one of two free throws). The Xavier lead actually increased from 15 to 16 points over that span.
When Jackson fouled out with plenty of time left in half two, Mack again relied on Taylor plus soph G Brian Walsh who delivered some spirited defense.
Brad Redford had a good night (12 points on 4-6 from 3 point range plus 4 rebounds). Jordan Crawford scored a controlled 18-making his FTs-driving when he had a step. He played rope-a-dope with Charlotte on one fast break-acting as if he was fatigued-faking circling the wagons-then blowing by the defense for a lay-up. Jordan chipped in 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
UNCC gave X a little trouble with their desperation full court press. Good wake-up call for the Dayton Flyers who will test the Muskies over the full 94 feet. Charlotte on the road will be difficult later in the year but UD is now squarely in XU's sights (Saturday at Cintas-11am ESPN2).
The Flyers started the season in the Top 25 and probably belong there now. UD is 13-3 overall. They lost 2 early in Puerto Rico (Villanova and Kansas State-both nationally rated). Since guard Rob Lowrey has started playing the Flyers are 9-1 with the only loss at New Mexico in the Pit 68-66. UD has a 29 game home win streak going. X can worry about that in February.
Most humans know Dayton hasn't beaten Xavier in Cincy in ages (last Flyer win 74-72 Jan 10,1981 at Riverfront Colesium). That's 25 straight games including 9 at Cintas and 16 in Cincinnati Gardens.
This UD team is loaded and experienced though. They made the NCAA tourney last season-beat West Virginia then lost to Kansas. Only Charles Little(who was a Xavier killer at UD Arena) is missing. Dayton has 5 seniors in their deep 11 man rotation. Their forwards Chris Wright(6-8 JR 14P-7.4 Reb) and Chris Johnson (6-6 Soph 13P-7.3 Reb) are the best pair in the league. Wright dunks and pogo sticks inside although he burned XU from the perimeter in a 71-58 Flyer win at UD Arena last Feb. He was game MVP. Johnson shoots it well from long range and goes inside willingly. He scored 26 and ripped down 20 rebounds in UD's opening A-10 OT win over Duquesne.
The top 4 guards are seniors. London Warren starts at PG. He specializes in on-the-ball defense and driving-not a good shooter. Rob Lowrey is the scoring point who can play 2G. Marcus Johnson starts at the 2G. He's very athletic but a streaky shooter. The 4th senior is Mickey Perry who plays both backcourt spots. SR Kurt Huelsman is a 4 year starter at center where he does the dirty work.
Coach Brian Gregory gets strong bench play from 6-9 Luke Fabrizius who makes 49% of his 3s. He scored 13 against Fordham Wednesday nite in a 74-58 Dayton win at Madison Square Garden. Paul Williams at 6-4 plays minutes at small forward. Big man subs are Devin Searcy at 6-10 and Josh Benson at 6-9.
The Flyers play a lot of guys-compete hard on the boards-bring the sticky defense(62 Points allowed) and have a bunch of experience. Xavier blew them out last March at Cintas 76-59. They did it with a fast start and great ball pressure on the UD guards beginning at the time line.
Mark Lyons would help in that area if he is ready to play although it's unfair to expect too much from him after two weeks off following the knee injury at Wake.
X has the horses and the venue and the momentum to win this. Maybe it will be harder for the road team to wake-up for this absurdly early 11am start.
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