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Muskies Get Job Done at Duquesne-Fordham Wed. At Cintas!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
2/11/2013
Xavier could easily have led Duquesne by 12 to 15 at the half Saturday nite in Pittsburgh. Missed lay-ups and free throws kept the Dukes in contact-down just 7 (33-26). DU responded well out of the break and ran out to a 10 point lead 6 minutes into half number two.
Then X got serious. Chris Mack decided to stop switching ball screens. The man defense got sticky. Dee Davis took the Dukes' frosh PG Derrick Coulter out of his comfort zone with ball hawking "d". Justin Martin stepped up defensively against Duke's swing man Quenvyn Winters. Travis Taylor swept the defensive board. Davis ran the point most of the second half allowing Semaj Christon to play off the ball more. That's less stressful on Semaj and makes him harder to locate for the enemy.
Mack played a bigger line-up with Isiah Philmore and Taylor matched together down low. The Muskies kept their cool-chipped away and won 73-65 canning 13 of 16 FTs down the stretch. Philmore was a moose inside(16 points-6 rebounds). That's 3 straight strong games for Zeke!! Trav Taylor scored 13 despite FT woes (3-8) and snared 12 rebounds. Justin Martin provided another scoring option with 15 points. He played a determined floor game also-hitting the deck several times-shagging 8 boards-and delivering physical defense.
Christon put together a terrific line(16 pts-7 rebounds-8 assists-only 1 turnover) plus he drilled his FTs. He seemed fresher thru 38 minutes maybe because he played more two guard than point. Semaj was picked A-10 Rookie of the Week for the 5th time. It's a game X had to win and they did the job.
Xavier's now 6-3 in the Atlantic 10-tied for 4th with UMass and LaSalle. Butler,VCU and SLU are 7-2. Each team won a difficult road game Saturday. The Muskies host the Fordham Rams Wednesday nite at Cintas (7PM-Time Warner Cable Sports Channel-311 in Ohio). It's another "MUST" win. Fordham's scuffling at 6-18 overall, 2-7 in the A-10,0-11 on the road and 4 straight losses). LaSalle shelled them 89-53 Saturday at Tom Gola Arena making 18 three pointers-a school record.
6-9 Senior leader Chris Gaston has not played since Jan 16th. He's missed 12 total games with a knee problem that required surgery this fall. He's a double-double machine and a vital veteran player for a young team. He's a question mark for the Xavier game, the Rams still have good size and really get on the offensive board but they foul a lot and shoot FTs poorly and defend sporadically giving up 78PPG in the A-10. 6-3 Junior guard Brandon Frazier is their top scorer(15PPG). He's a confident attacking NYC player who shoots alot and gets to the FT line frequently.
6-2 Bryan Smith is another decent NYC guard. Frosh Mandel Thomas has emerged in A-10 play (16PPG-last 4 games-22 vs St Louis). Frosh PG Jermaine Myers started at LaSalle and was about the only bright spot (10P-6A). 6-8 Frosh Travion Leonard has stepped up with Gaston injured (22 points-last 2 games), 6-10 Soph Ryan Canty is huge and a tiger inside but he's a foul machine and a horrible FT shooter. 6-8 Frosh Ryan Rhomes is a jumbo also but he's inexperienced.
Fordham would probably have 2 more A-10 wins if Gaston had played. With a healthy Gaston the Rams would be a handful. Coach Tom Pecora is building the program in his third year. He put Hofstra on the map in the strong CAA. Chaz Williams(UMass) and Halil Kanecivic(St Joe's) were his recruits at Hofstra. Pete Gillen speaks highly of Pecora.
Fordham has made a major committment to the basketball program. A bunch of their games are now televised on the NY Yankees channel(YES) which pops up on my cable. Bottom line, Fordham's never come close to winning at Cintas. Without Gaston their chances diminish even further,but he could pull a Hail Mary and show up on the floor. If XU tries to mail this one in,they could be beaten,but Coach Mack won't let that happen.
Other Atlantic 10 games Wednesday: Charlotte at Butler. A Charlotte loss would push them 2 games behind XU with 6 to play. Charlotte owns the tie breaker over Xavier in a tie scenario. Dayton is at URI. The Flyers are flirting with missing the A-10 tourney(3-6-13th). X plays at UD Saturday. LaSalle is at St Bonnies. Mark Schmidt has the game plan to upset LU. That would help the Muskies. LaSalle has a ridiculously high RPI based on their win over Butler(without Rotnei Clarke). X has the tie-breaker over LaSalle which may come into play. Richmond is at St Joe's.
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