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X Advances Past Minnesota
By
Jay Skeldon,
3/19/2010
The Xavier men's basketball team continued its winning ways in the month of March on Friday afternoon. The Musketeers knocked off No. 11 seed Minnesota, 65-56, in the Opening Round of the 2009-10 NCAA Tournament at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. XU's leading scorer Jordan Crawford was the difference, finishing with a game-high 28 points on 11-of-21 shooting including 5-of-11 from long range. Xavier (25-8) advances to play in the Round of 32 on Sunday against No. 3 seed Pitt, which defeated Oakland on Friday. The Gophers, meanwhile, finish their season at 21-14.
X struggled mightily from the field in the first half in which the Muskies made just 21 percent of its shots including being blocked 10 times by the Minnesota. Fortunately, the Musketeers played stingy defense and rebounded well, limited second change opportunities. That translated into a halftime score in which the two teams were tied at 26.
In the second half, XU kicked it into a higher gear behind the efforts of Crawford. The X-Men scored 39 points after intermission on 56 percent shooting from the field. Xavier gradually wore the Gophers down as they built some breathing room as the team reeled off a 15-5 run with 7:07 left to play. That provided the Musketeers with an 11 point advantage.
Minnesota hung around, though, until the final minute, as they pulled within six, 60-54. Then Crawford exterted more of his influence with a back-breaking triple from the left corner on a feed from Terrell Holloway with 38 ticks remaining. That pushed the lead to nine and sealed the victory.
Other top performers for Xavier included guards Holloway (6 points, 4 assist) and Dante Jackson (9 points, 3 assists). Jamel McLean and Jason Love anchored the post with seven points apiece. McLean added 14 rebounds while Love pulled down eight. Kenny Frease chipped in a six point and five rebound effort as well.
As a team, Xavier rebounded and took care of the basketball well. The Muskies outrebounded the long and lean Gophers, 50-41, including 20 to 16 on the offensive glass. In addition, XU turned the ball over just six times on the day.
Minnesota was led by Lawrence Westbrook who scored a team-high 19 points.
Xavier was the lone Atlantic 10 team to advance past the first round as Richmond and Temple fell short in their matchups against St. Mary's and Cornell, respectively. X will look to continue to carry the torch on Sunday afternoon against the Panthers (25-8). The game pits the two teams in a rematch of their Sweet 16 contest in the 2008-09 NCAA Tournament in which Pitt came out on top, 60-55.
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