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Muskies Smother Owls
1/12/2013
Temple, coming in off a tough loss to Kansas and already owning a huge win over Syracuse, looked to be a nightmare mismatch for the Musketeers. Xavier had lost four in a row coming in, but used a stifling defensive effort to silence the Owls and win their conference opener 57-52.
Xavier (8-6, 1-0) survived the game with starting point guard Dee Davis missing most of the game. In his stead, walk on Landen Amos played outstanding defense in helping to limit Temple (10-4, 0-1) into a pure jump shooting team.
That's not the Owls' game, and it showed with a 33.9% from the field and just 4-20 from three. Star guard Khalif Wyatt was dogged for long stretches by Amos, as the Musketeers held Wyatt to just 5 points (2-11, 0-5).
The Musketeers opened up the game strong, moving in front 20-12 thanks to strong play from their big men. Travis Taylor finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, including getting to the line 11 times. Jeff Robinson scored 6 points, but he pulled down 7 rebounds and hit a couple of big shots late in the game.
Despite a disadvantage in size, Xavier outrebounded the Owls 42-31. That was key in overcoming 10 second half turnovers and losing Davis to a left wrist injury in a pileup with 7:15 to go in the first half.
With Davis out, Semaj Christon led the way with 16 points. Justin Martin (10 points, 5 rebounds) and Brad Redford (9 points on 3 threes) broke out of their mini-slumps with decent games to help balance out the scoring.
A quick 9-0 run in the second half gave Temple a 35-29 lead out of the break. But Xavier clawed its way back into the game, with Martin's three pointer putting them ahead for good at 38-35. During a 10 point run, Redford drilled a pair of threes that pushed the lead to 48-37, essentially putting the game away.
Taylor made a pair of free throws with 11 seconds to go, and Davis returned to grab the final rebound, playing one handed. For Xavier, it snapped their longest losing streak since the 1981-82 when they dropped seven in a row.
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