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Musketeers Fall Late to Spiders
2/4/2013
Another road game, another close agonizing loss for Chris Mack's squad. The Richmond Spiders (14-9, 4-4) held the Musketeers off 73-71 in a back and forth game that Xavier (12-9, 5-3) could not close. They could never fully come back when they fell behind, either.
Much of that has to do with the way Xavier plays. With a dearth of offensive talent, the Musketeers are forced to play a much more conservative, effective offense. Relying on a low-scoring offense and a strong defense will lead to a lot of close losses.
Those have piled up for the Musketeers, in the Atlantic 10 and in non-conference. The only loss that has really stuck out was the beat down against UC. Everything else could have swung on some points here and there, or another good scorer.
As it is, Xavier continues to struggle with Travis Taylor and Semaj Christon as their only reliable scorers. Taylor finished with 24 points (9-11 shooting and 6-10 from the free throw line) and eight rebounds. Christon scored 15 points, but was just 4-10 from the field and 7-13 from the free throw line.
And, ultimately, that's where this game turned for the Spiders and slipped away from the Musketeers. Xavier was just 20-31 from the charity stripe, with Christon and Taylor missing huge free throws down the stretch, and Taylor actually failing to miss free throws to give Xavier an opportunity to tie the game after making his first.
That summed up Xavier's night. Trailing twice by three, Taylor made his first shot, only to find a way to make the second when intentionally trying to miss. Compare that with earlier in the game, when he and Christon struggled to make a shot when they actually wanted to.
Richmond, meanwhile, made 25-31 free throws (80.6%) to essentially ice the game. Their high percentage erased Xavier's offensive efficiency (24-40 from the field for the game). The Spiders also hit eight threes, which has been a weakness at times for the Musketeers.
Brad Redford struggled again, still recovering from his illness, making just one of five threes. He had several open looks, but was off again for the night. Dee Davis, Jeff Robinson and Justin Martin combined to score 18 points on 6-10 shooting, with Davis hitting a pair of big threes.
Nonetheless, as three starters, their lack of overall production is disturbing. It may be a matter of role players playing out of position. Martin has failed to progress this season, while Davis looks like the ultimate glue-guy that is being asked to do too much as the point guard. Robinson's inconsistencies have been duly and tirelessly noted.
Isaiah Philmore, however, has come on in his last couple of games. He topped his performance against Dayton, scoring 10 points on 4-4 from the field and 2-2 from the line. He also pulled down four rebounds. His consistency in the past two games is encouraging for the rest of the season, as well as next year. He and Matt Stainbrook would make a nice one-two punch and help ease the loss of Taylor. For now, he remains a valuable weapon off the bench for Mack.
The Musketeers have the rest of the week off before taking on Duquesne next Saturday in Pittsburgh.
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