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Muskies Do It with Defense until Offense Shows Up!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/24/2010
Rhode Island showed up at Cintas Saturday with some impressive scoring stats. The Rams led the A-10 at over 80 points per game. They were shooting 46% from the floor and 73% from the foul line. Their assists far exceeded their turnovers. XU exploded all those good numbers, beating URI, 72-61. The defense that was missing on the road Wednesday at Temple (77-72 loss) saved the day at home. X trailed 29-26 at the half but it could have been much worse.
Rhody stars Keith Cothran and Delroy James shot a collective 4-13 from the floor with no free throws. Slippery Lamonte Ulmer hurt the Muskies (5-5 FG) but he did it off the dribble with some improbable runners. XU found the 3 point shooters also (Rams 1-of-8 from long range).
How bad was X on offense? They made just 9 field goals including none from 3 point range. Usually, the Muskies fill the point gap at the FT line. Not early against URI! X shot 8-16 overall. The Muskie Big Guys (Love, Frease, McLean, Taylor) went 2-10 with who missed front ends of one-on-ones.
A blizzard of turnovers (12) led to empty possessions thus just 22 XU shots. The defense and rebounding (21-13 favoring X) kept the Muskies in hailing distance.
Xavier started the second half sluggishly falling behind by 7 quickly then Jordan Crawford took over. In a magic 90 seconds, Crawford scored 8 and set-up Jason Love for two more, fueling a lightning 10 point run. The Muskies led 38-35 and regained their offensive bearings. Rhody tied at at 43 but a Brad Redford "3" and a Kenny Frease running hook extended the lead to 5.
XU survived foul trouble to Frease and Love. Andrew Taylor and Jamel McLean manned the power spots for over 5 minutes and the lead got larger. URI slapped on a desperation press and cut the Muskie lead to 7 with 3:43 left. Time-out Chris Mack!
X then ran a neat press break play culminating in a Jason Love dunk!! Ball game over!!
Crawford started slowly as usual. He seems to test the defense to see what parameters he's working with that day. His line was impressive! 21 points, 12 rebounds , 6 assists and solid work as a press breaking ball handler when URI overplayed Terrell Holloway.
Jordan's decision making is getting better consistently. Remember Drew Lavender! Coming off his red shirt year it took him 10 plus games to find himself. Crawford struggled against Marquette and K-State early, but he is certainly cooking now.
Jamel McLean re-emerged (16 points, 8 rebounds, solid inside defense). Mark Lyons and Frease played solid minutes after halftime. Neither faired well at Temple nor in half one vs Rhode Island.
X sits 13-6 overall and 5-1 in the A-10-a half game behind Temple (5-0). The Muskies' RPI is a gaudy 13 with a #2 Strength of Schedule. That's 19 straight wins at Cintas for XU, and 27 in a row in A-10 play.
Duquesne comes in Thursday. The Dukes beat X in Pittsburgh last season.
Rhode Island is 3-2 in league play. They stay in the area until Tuesday and play at Dayton. The Flyers lost at Saint Joe's Saturday. They are 3-2 in the A-10 with a 30 game UD Arena win streak. The loser between URI and UD would seem to be in tough shape for receiving one of the four first round A-10 Tournament byes.
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