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Muskies Deliver at Charlotte!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
2/21/2010
February looked precarious for XU Basketball 3 weeks ago. The schedule called for 5 of 7 games away from Cintas. So far so good 5 games into the mine field!! Xavier has won 4 of 5-3 of those on the road. The only blemish-that 90-65 loss at Dayton two weeks back-is looking like an abberation and/or a turning point and/or a lesson well learned. The Florida victory last Saturday was impressive. The Gators almost never lose in Gainesville unless the opposition is Kentucky. XU won going away 76-64.
Since then UF has shown its worth with SEC wins over Auburn and at Ole Miss. Wednesday at Cintas Xavier obliterated Saint Joe's 88-52. The Hawks almost KO'ed Temple Saturday at the Palestra finally losing 75-67 in OT.
Yesterday the Muskies overcame homecoming, a white-out promotion and a strong team at Charlotte winning 81-67. The game was huge for the 49ers. Their chances of winning the A-10 regular season now are basically done (8-4 in the league). They may need to win 4 straight to get a first round A-10 Tourney bye and their NCAA stock is now bubblicous with 3 consecutive losses.
UNCC wanted revenge for a loss in January at Cintas. They had all the incentives and edges going in. Xavier just shrugged them off. Charlotte has a legitimate inside game with Spears,Braswell and Jones. They have good guards to compliment that post presence.
After a tight opening 8 minutes (tied 16-16) the Muskies figured them out and took control. Charlotte never made a meaningful run the rest of the way. The XU defense made the UNCC guards inefficient. PG Dujuan Harris is almost as good as Richmond's Kevin Anderson in dribble penetrating to below the foul ine.
Terrell Holloway and Mark Lyons took turns containing him and short circuiting the 49er offense. Dante Jackson played strong on-the-ball "D" against 3 point sniper Derrio Green. He scored 23 but shot just 6-17. 8 of his points came at the FT line.
Jordan Crawford in contrast put together a rather amazing score sheet line. He scored 23 on 8-15 shooting with 4 rebounds and 6 assists. He was credited with 2 steals but I counted 4 and they all led to fast break lay-ups.
JC showed again that he can really take over a game without just shooting the rock. He makes huge hard shots-no doubt but he also does so much more to make his teammates better. He's much more than a scorer!! He seems to relish the subtle stuff not just making his shots.
XU clearly won the 2 guard match-up and the PG match-up. Holloway and Lyons made 13 of 14 free throws. The XU BIGS played well again. Jamel McLean scored 14 with 11 rebounds. Jason Love went for 10 and 4. Kenny Frease chipped in 6 points and 5 boards. The power guys passed it cleverly-out of double teams and to each other.
X ran great offense-shooting 52%FG-outscoring UNCC 23-15 at the FT line-beating them 36-26 in paint points and 18-8 on fast break points. It was a mature complete controlled dominating road win over a very good motivated opponent. Xavier pretty well put it all together-defense,rebounding,offense!
The Muskies are 19-7. The RPI improves to 17. X is still tied with Temple for second in the conference (10-2) a half game behind Richmond. The Owls were lucky to beat SJU in Philly. Richmond squeezed by GW 74-70. They're 11-2 and don't play again until next Sunday at Cintas (1PM).
The Muskies play at St Louis Wednesday (8PM-Fox Sports Ohio). The Billikens are 14-1 at home. XU needed a Derrick Brown stick back at the buzzer to beat them 70-69 at their place two years ago. More on SLU later in the week!!
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