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Atlantic City Diary: Year 4, Day 1-Resilience!!!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
3/12/2010
The Dayton Flyers owned the first 29 minutes of Friday night's A-10 Quarterfinal against XU at AC. UD played with focused desperation. Their 5 seniors led the way playing faster and harder than the Muskies. Dayton knew their slim NCAA chances were dependent on a rubber game win over their backyard rival. The UD guards put heavy steady pressure on the XU backcourt forcing turnovers and bad shots.
Marcus Johnson did a sticky defensive job on X top scorer Jordan Crawford. And Dayton Made shots. Rob Lowrey scored 12 by the half. Marcus Johnson added 11. Chris Wright played full-out and above the rim. The Muskies hung in-trailing by 5 (40-35) at the break despite sub 40% shooting.
X's lone senior Jason Love willed in 11 points. Xavier was plus 5 points at the FT line. XU also won the rebound battle 20-14 at the break. It was a ray of light after being outboarded by UD by 35 in the two regular season games.
X steadily faded in the first 9 minutes of half two as Dayton kept attacking. London Warren consistently beat X off the dribble for lay-ups. With 10:54 left it was UD 59-XU 44.
Then Dayton took a breath and backed off and XU switched to zone defense!! The Flyers started to play the clock way too early and the Muskies edged their way back. They climbed the mountain and finally tied the score at 66-66 with 2:31 left. X took its first lead at 1;22 when Terrell Holloway put the nail in a traditional 3 point play after a careening dribble drive from the left wing. 69-66 XU!!
UD scored to make it 69-68 X. Then Jordan Crawford split a pair of free throws. 70-68 X with 33 ticks left. UD had the ball.
Rob Lowrey dribbled to mid-court and called time-out. A Xavier guard tried to steal. Lowrey swung an elbow after the whistle. Technical foul on Dayton. X made two FTS and got the ball. Ball game over - Xavier wins 78-73 with a 20 point swing in the last 11 minutes.
Xavier had focused on regaining respectability on the glass against Dayton after two butt whippings. Sure enough XU outboraded UD 39-26 and despite all the other warts and Dayton's strong effort the Muskies pulled this one out.
X piled up a huge 33-17 edge in FT points thanks to their dedication to the inside game. They survived 18 turnovers and just 7 assists and poor 3-15 3 point shooting. The offense boiled down to hard dribble drives and free throws.
Love played like a senior leader (17 points, 10 rebounds). Holloway shrugged off the UD defensive pressure and scored 22. Crawford dropped 20 points despite tight defense and did it efficiently. It wasn't a Monet! Dayton fired all its guns.
XU survived to play in Saturday's Semis at 3:30 against the winner of 3 seed Richmond and 11 seed UMass.
Xavier's won 8 in a row now dating back over a month. They are 24-7 overall with a Top 20 RPI and designs on a Top 4 NCAA seed with two more wins here.
Temple will be tough to beat if XU would reach Sunday's nationally televised Final (1PM-CBS). The Owls dismantled St Bonnies today and will be favored over Rhode Island in Saturday's early Semi.
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