|
Muskies Get Must Win on Road
2/11/2013
It was anything but flashy for the Musketeers. In fact, it looked a lot like there other road games this year--an epic second half collapse that would leave the team in a whole it could not dig itself out of.
Luckily for Xavier, this time they were playing Duquesne, who has not won a game yet in the conference. The Muskies rallied from a 10 point second half deficit for a 73-65 win in a "can't-lose" type of game.
For Xavier ((13-9, 6-3), it's not about style points right now. It's not like they're playing trying to enhance their seed in the NCAA tournament, like recent years. Right now, they'd be lucky to be considered to be on the bubble.
Instead, it's about winning games. And a lot of them. Xavier is in a convenient stretch of the season where they play some winnable games against some mediocre to downright bad teams. It's time to rack up wins now, before the meat of the schedule hits.
But on Saturday night, Xavier got enough contributions from several players to find a way to get a victory. It also helped that the Dukes failed to strike at the Musketeers' Achilles heel, going just 9-33 (27.3%) from three.
Xavier failed to bury Duquesne, despite jumping out to a 33-26 halftime lead, and a high water mark of 33-22 with 1:22 to play in the first half. A lot of that had to do with Quevyn Winters (19 points) and a 25-4 Dukes run. With that, Duquesne led 47-37 midway through the second half.
Luckily for the Musketeers, several players came to play with Semaj Christon (16 points, seven rebounds and eight assists) and Travis Taylor (13 points and 12 rebounds). Isaiah Philmore played his third straight strong game, scoring a season high 16 points on 4-7 shooting and 8-12 from the free throw line. He also pulled down six rebounds, including four offensive. Those were the most effective 25 minutes he played all season, which is encouraging as Xavier moves down the stretch.
Justin Martin also showed up, scoring nine early points for the Musketeers, and finishing with 15 points and eight rebounds on 6-9 shooting. Chris Mack's squad needs more of that from Martin, who looked like a potentially steady scorer next Christon to begin the year. They need him to be that steady option again, with Brad Redford (no points, 0-3 from three) and Jeff Robinson (four points and four turnovers in 21 minutes) entering their expected slumps.
If the Musketeers are to succeed this season, the formula remains simple. Taylor and Christon are going to get their's, but there needs to be two other players that are scoring. On Saturday night, it was Philmore and Martin. They've started to show over the last couple of games the potential that Mack has seen in them. That bodes well for the remainder of the season and the future.
For now, Xavier heads back home to face Fordham on Wednesday night, hoping to correct their mistakes from Saturday's game. A 25-4 run by an opponent isn't something teams will often overcome. The Muskies lucked out. They were playing Duquesne. There aren't a whole lot of Duquesnes left on the schedule.
|
|
