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‘Country Roads’ take women home

Cold shooting Musketeers fall to West Virginia, make early tournament exit

Emily Neubauer
Contributing Sportswriter

It was a tough week for Xavier University basketball; the tournament was not too kind to either the men or the women’s basketball teams.

The women’s basketball team was unusually cold in their shooting from the field and dropped a first round game against the 11th seeded West Virginia Mountaineers 65-52.

Freshman Amber Harris, earlier named the A-10 Rookie of the Year, paced the Muskies with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Harris’ 19 came on 6-of-14 shooting and she was also 5-of-6 from the free throw line.

She also posted a team NCAA Tournament record three blocked shots and stole the ball six times.

Xavier couldn’t keep up with West Virginia’s strong inside presence. Sizeable center Yinka Sanni manhandled the Musketeers in the post, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Harris reflected on her style of play, saying, “She was slapping my hand away. That’s how she got so much space.”

“She used her quickness to get angles to the basket,” Xavier head coach Kevin McGuff said. “She got the ball, put it on the floor and got it to the basket. We were supposed to be running our point guard at her to take away the dribble, but it just didn’t happen.”

Xavier was also no match for forward Chakhia Cole, who led both teams in scoring with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Things looked up at first for the Lady Musketeers as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead over WVU, thanks to a pair of free throws from Harris.

However, West Virginia scored five consecutive points, taking an 11-9 lead that they would not surrender.

Xavier suffered through a rough first half, shooting a mere 24 percent from the field.

They cut the deficit to three points at the 4:20 mark on a Miranda Green jumper but would fail to score again before the half.

West Virginia would take advantage and ended the half on a 10-0 run. They entered into the break leading XU 31-18.

Xavier came within 10 points before the Mountaineers kept an even pace and never let them get closer.

XU connected on a season low 15 field goals and finished with a 15-50 night (30 percent).

The Xavier women’s team now owns a 4-6 record in the NCAA Tournament and is only 3-2 when playing as the higher seed.

The 13-point deficit was XU’s largest of the season and the 18 points marked the fewest the Musketeers had scored in any half all year long.

Seniors Suntana Granderson (13 points), Deanna Mason (zero points), Miranda Green (four points), Joei Clyburn (four points) and Michele Miller (four points) played in their final games as Xavier Musketeers.

Granderson also pulled down two rebounds while Miller grabbed nine.

Mason snared a rebound of her own while Green and Clyburn hauled down three rebounds apiece.

This senior class finished their careers after compiling an impressive 86-41 record over their four years.

They qualified for post-season play in each of their four years, including this year’s NCAA Women’s Tournament bid.

 Briefs

Doug Tifft  
Sports Editor

Tennis nets two awards in Penn.

Sophomore Ra’ees Ismail and freshman J.T. Torbeck were honored by the Atlantic 10 Conference on Monday. Ismail earned his first career Performer of the Week award and Torbeck won his second Rookie of the Week award.

The pair were excellent for the Musketeers this past weekend when Xavier was able to defeat Duquesne and St. Joseph’s in Pittsburgh. The wins put XU at 4-1 in the A-10 and 7-9 overall for the spring season.

Ismail was able to pull off a straight-set win in singles play against the Dukes of Duquesne as well as against the Hawks of St. Joe’s.

Torbeck was also undefeated during the weekend, winning in three sets against Duquesne and achieving a straight-sets win against the Hawks.

The Performer of the Week and the Rookie of the Week also teamed up to play doubles against both Duquesne and St. Joseph’s winning both of those matches as well.

Baseball sneaks past Bearcats

Freshman pitcher Zac Richard allowed only five hits in 6.2 innings in the Musketeers 1-0 victory against the Bearcats of Cincinnati. Junior Kyle Cowden and senior David Hartman helped preserve the shut-out by pitching the final 2.1 innings. The win improves the Musketeers’ record to 4-17 on the season and the Bearcats fall to 11-8 for the year.

The only run of the game came in the sixth inning on an error by the the Bearcats shortstop. Senior Jordan Wolf walked for Muskies with two down and proceeded to steal second and move into scoring position. On a hard grounder to short by sophomore Sean Farrell the Cincinnati shortstop fielded and threw low to first where the first baseman could not secure the errant throw. The ball scooted past the first baseman allowing Wolf to come all the way home from second to score the game’s only run.

The seventh and eighth innings saw scoring threats posed by the Bearcats by loading the bases in the consecutive innings. Each attempt was thwarted by the Musketeers defense and pitching to preserve the 1-0 win against the arch-rival.

Richard got the win as the XU pitcher of record and now accounts for three of the Muskies four wins. The freshman struck out three batsmen and also allowed three walks to the UC offense. Cowden threw for 1.1 innings and allowed one hit and two walks. Hartman threw for the final inning and allowed one hit and struck out one for his first save of the season.