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Xavier Flops in Second Half Against Hawks
1/27/2013
The roller coaster season continued Saturday night for the Xavier Musketeers, with a gut-wrenching 59-49 loss to the Saint Joseph's Hawks. Xavier led 49-47 with 3:58 to play, but failed to score again, as the Hawks finished out on a 12-0 run, drilling a couple of threes in the process. The Musketeers actually didn't score over the final five minutes of the game.
That was the story for the majority of the contest. Saint Joe's drilled threes while Xavier flailed helplessly on offense. Not even Semaj Christon, and surprisingly decent efforts out of Justin Martin and Jeff Robinson could save the Muskies' listless offense.
Christon finished with 16 points on 8-21 shooting. But things fell apart in the final 10:30 of the game. He went 3-10 down the stretch, while the rest of the team managed just five shots, missing all of them. To make matters worse, Xavier turned the ball over six times in that stretch, rubbing salt in the wound of an awful offensive performance.
Robinson managed to show up after disappearing against Charlotte, finishing with eight points and 10 rebounds. And Martin was mildly effective for the first time in weeks. He scored eight points on 3-6 shooting with five rebounds before he tweaked his back, limiting him to just 20 minutes.
Other than Travis Taylor (10 points, five rebounds), the rest of the team never got off the bus. Dee Davis turned the ball over three times and managed five points on 2-7 shooting. Brad Redford (0-4 from three) failed to score. Landen Amos missed a wide open dunk, as he continues to search for his first field goal of the season.
Despite the struggles, Xavier actually led this game 35-30 five minutes into the second half. They tore off a 9-0 run out of the break, after trailing 30-26 going into the locker rooms. Xavier even led 47-43 with under six minutes to go, before their offensive woes reared its ugly head again.
So despite winning the rebounding battle and doing a good job of preventing Tay Jones and Langston Galloway penetrate the lane, Xavier was hampered by their offense. The defense swallowed up C.J. Aiken, holding him to six points on 2-9 shooting, with 10 rebounds and four blocks. And they did a good job on Galloway, who scored all 15 of his points on threes (5-14 shooting overall).
The Hawks shot 35.8% and failed to get any kind of offensive flow going for the majority of the game. But the Musketeers were lit up by the three pointer, as Saint Joe's drilled 10-24. By comparison, the Musketeers managed just one in 13 attempts.
This was probably a game Xavier couldn't afford to lose. They need to split this road trip, at worst. Things only get tougher from here on out in the A10, particularly with two games against Dayton and having yet to play Butler, VCU or SLU in conference. It's an uphill battle for Coach Mack's team, as it has been all season long.
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