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Musketeers Come Back for Road Win at GW
By
Jay Skeldon,
1/10/2010
The Musketeers' second game of its season opening Atlantic 10 road trip was the inverse of the first. On Thursday at La Salle, Xavier found itself up by a large margin early only to have the Explorers fight their way back into the game. On Sunday afternoon, XU trailed George Washington by 11 points at halftime and managed to catapult the Colonials on an 11 point second half surge. That energized the Muskies to a 76-69 comeback win. Jason Love led Xavier with a 19 point and 13 rebound double-double effort as X improves to 10-5 on the season and a perfect 2-0 in conference action. GW, meanwhile, drops to 11-4 and 1-1 in the A-10.
George Washington opened the scoring in the first half and led for the majority of the first seven minutes of play. Xavier shot back with a 7-0 run to take a six point lead, 19-13, with 10:39 left. The Colonials then clamped down their defense and got hot from the outside, taking an 11-point margin into halftime.
In the second half, George Washington maintained its lead. But, with the score standing at 60-50 with 7:38 left to play, XU's 11-point surge over the next three minutes of play pushed Xavier in front. Jordan Crawford's jumper from the corner with 4:44 left capped the run and gave Xavier a 61-60 advantage.
Xavier closed out the game with precise free throw shooting to grab the seven point win. XU guard Terrell Holloway nailed eight straight free throws in the last two minutes of action. Holloway, who finished with 15 points overall, converted on a near perfect 13-of-14 free throws for the game. All but two of his point total originated from the foul line. As a team, the Musketeers hit 23-of-30 free throws for 76.7 percent.
X won the battle of the boards, grabbing 39 to GW's 33. That included 16 offensive rebounds for Xavier compared to 12 for the Colonials. Love was the key force anchoring the middle for Xavier. He alone pulled down seven offensive boards. Love's double-double was his fifth of the season.
Other key contributers for Xavier included Crawford who finished with 18 points and seven rebounds. Crawford, who was named the Atlantic 10 player of the week for the second time this season earlier in the day, nailed 4-of-7 from long range. Brad Redford added nine points (3-of-5 3-pt FG) and Dante Jackson chipped in eight points including a perfect 2-of-2 from behind the arc.
After two straight games on the road to open A-10 play, Xavier returns to home to Cintas Center for a two game set. Next up are the Charlotte 49ers on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. That game will be televised on Fox Sports Net Ohio. Following that, X will look to continue its dominance in the city of Cincinnati against the Dayton Flyers, who travel down I-75 to face the Musketeers on Saturday.
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