— XAVIER 90, BELMONT 49—
Steadfast defence, subsequent offence anchor cagers’ vict’ry
Interesting basket ball game anticipated against Creighton
John LaFollette
Sports Editor
goxavier.com
Staunch defense, typified by this block from sophomore center Jason Love, has become the Musketeers’ calling card this season. In forcing turnovers and making defensive stops, the Xavier defense can set up transition scoring opportunities for the offense, resulting in point totals in the 90s, which the Musketeers have done four times in its seven games.
Following a gameplan that has served it well all season, the Xavier men’s basketball team again used a disruptive defense to spark a balanced scoring attack en route to a 90-49 win over the Belmont Bruins last Saturday night at Cintas Center.
This strategy has been executed particularly well during Xavier’s current five-game winning streak. The Musketeers have forced an average of 13.2 turnovers per game, while holding their opponents to .369 percent shooting from the field in those five wins.
In turn, Xavier’s tough man-to-man defense has created scoring opportunities for a host of Musketeers, giving them an offense that boasts six players averaging double-figures in scoring, including all five starters.
“We take pride in our defense,” said junior forward B.J. Raymond. “Defense is the key, and the rest takes care of itself.”
Xavier started the game with a spurt, scoring six unanswered points before building an early double-digit lead.
By halftime the Musketeers led 41-25, and after a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers by senior guard Stanley Burrell Xavier was up by 28 and head coach Sean Miller was putting in his subs.
Burrell led all scorers with 18 points, followed by Raymond and junior forward
C.J. Anderson, who chipped in 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Senior forward Josh Duncan was a point shy of recording a double-double, pulling
down 10 rebounds to go with nine points in 17 minutes of playing time that was
limited by a stomach virus.
Burrell has emerged as a premiere defender this season, in the last three games in particular, anchoring the Musketeers’ unit with his defensive intensity.
The performances in their win over Belmont have become emblematic of this team’s style of play.
“We have a number of different players doing a good job [on defense],” said Miller.
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Freshman Stephen Duckett.
“It’s our identity: to be a team on defense and a balanced scoring team on offense, and most important, to be a team that keeps getting better,” he said.
The win came in the first game of a December slate of games against tough non-conference opponents.
Their second comes against a tough Creighton team that has a history of beating Xavier with fast, physical play that has caught the Musketeers off-guard the past three seasons.
“They’ve beaten us three times in a row, and the storyline has been the same: they physically beat us up, and they out-rebound us,” Miller said. “They play 10 guys, play on their terms and we lose, and that absolutely can’t happen. It’s as big of a game as we’ll play all season.”
The game against Creighton holds special meaning for this year’s senior class, which has never beaten the Bluejays.
The past two seasons, the Musketeers have had the misfortune of playing Creighton on their home court, the Qwest Center, in Omaha, Neb., which typically holds a raucous crowd of 17,200.
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Seniors Drew Lavendar (middle) and Stanley Burrel (right).
This year’s Creighton squad is much depleted from last year. Former star Anthony Tolliver took his 6-8 frame and 13.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Still, Creighton is undefeated, and will hardly be pushovers. For their part, the Musketeers appear to be chomping at the bit.
“We’re definitely looking forward to this game, and I can’t wait until that game starts, because we’re 0-3 against them,” Burrell said of the matchup.
“When that ball goes up, please believe we’ll be ready,” he said.
Surprise given Xavier rooters
Musketeers lose in Shooutout, regain laurels in win over N.C. State.
Doug Tifft
Associate Sports Editor
goxavier.com
T’Shia Phillips won her third consecutive Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week honor this week.
In front of a sold-out Cintas Center crowd, the Xavier women’s basketball team was doomed by shaky second half play as they lost the Skyline Chili Women’s Crosstown Shootout to Cincinnati 61-55.
It was the second straight loss for the Muskies, both at home, marking the first time in a span of 55 games that the women have dropped consecutive home matchups.
All-American candidate Amber Harris turned in a strong performance in the loss with 16 points, 13 rebounds and four assists.
Freshman center T’Shia Phillips tallied her forth double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The Atlantic 10 later recognized Phillips’ efforts with her third consecutive Rookie of the Week honor.
Maureen Hester chipped in 11 points on three of six shooting as well as four rebounds.
The Bearcats came out hot early, jumping out to an 11-2 lead with 13:38 remaining behind five of Jill Stevens’ game high 22 points.
The Musketeers quickly recovered, led by 10 of Phillips’ 16 points to tie the game at 26 going in to halftime.
The Bearcats took advantage of a 23-17 second half rebounding advantage to grab control after the break and improve to 5-2 this season.
Freshman shooting guard Tenishia Benson came up big with all 11 of her points and five of her nine rebounds coming in the second half.
The freshman and sophomore-led Xavier women showed their inexperience with poor execution in late game situations after falling behind with 9:50 remaining, the same problem that led to loses against Liberty and Florida earlier this season.
The Muskies were unable to capitalize on the glass after 6’3” Bearcat center Natasha Graboski fouled out with 5:56 remaining and was replaced by 5’8” guard Angel Morgan by only out-rebounding Cincinnati 9-7 from then out and giving up four crucial second half points.
Graboski’s forced substitution was the only change in the lineup of the game for the Bearcats, following Coach J. Kelly Hall’s philosophy of allowing his players to stay in the game if they are playing well.
Cincinnati’s matchup zone was able to neutralize the height advantage
that the Musketeers held in the post with Phillips at 6’6” and Harris
at 6’5”.
Once the inside game grew stale, the offense began to focus on the perimeter,
albeit with little success.
The Musketeers could never find their stroke from behind the 3 point arc, as they ended the game shooting only 13.0 percent from deep on three of 23 shooting.
The loss was the first time in four years that Xavier has not come away with the Kendle Cup, the trophy awarded to the winner of the annual XU-UC women’s game.
Overall Xavier is 9-21 in the 30 year Crosstown series dating back to the 1978-79 season.
All 10,250 seats in the Cintas Center were sold for the game, far surpassing the previous record for a women’s game of 6,802 on March 16, 2001 against Louisville in the NCAA tournament.
Xavier drops to 4-3 on the year as they prepared for a trip to N.C. State on Tuesday night to face the 24th ranked Wolfpack and their legendary coach Kay Yow.
Amber Harris came up big again for the Muskies as she scored 19 points and grabbed 13 boards to lead the team to a 51-49 win.
Harris’s Musketeers may have won the game but she was slightly outshined by fellow All-American candinate Khadijah Washington, who poured in 26 points and nine rebounds to lead N.C. State.
Xavier led for the majority of the game, taking advantage of the Wolfpack’s one of 14 performance from three point range.
Despite their poor shooting N.C. State had an opportunity to win the game, but Shayla Fields’ three was off target as the buzzer sounded.
Junior guard Jerri Taylor had a season high 15 points, and Phillips added 10 points to help the Musketeers secure their biggest win of the season.
Cal Poly avenged in win over Xavier in NCAAs
Despite loss in A-10s, Musketeers receive at-large bid to NCAA Tournament
Paul Moeller
Associate Sports Editor
The first round of the NCAA Tournament is a thing of beauty.
It is a time of excitement filled with hopes of improbable upsets and Cinderella stories.
For the Xavier volleyball team, in only their second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, it was the final match of a truly outstanding season.
The Musketeers took on the 17th-ranked California Poly Mustangs, whom they had defeated earlier in the season at the USF Asics/Coca-Cola Invitational in San Francisco.
The Mustangs avenged the loss, however, by defeating the Xavier squad 3-0 in Athens, Ohio on Friday.
Playing in the final match of their NCAA careers, seniors Jenni Horvath and Jill Quayle each contributed to Xavier’s valiant effort.
Horvath got under nine digs while Quayle smashed seven kills.
Sophomores Hillary Otte and Kelly Ruth also added what they could, notching 10 and seven kills, respectively.
Junior Jenn Welsh dished out 24 assists and sophomore Lauren Kaminsky recorded nine digs.
In game one, the Musketeers started by surrendering three straight points, but a Jenni Horvath kill got the Musketeers on the board.
As the Mustangs began to pull away, a media timeout was called with a 15-7 Cal Poly lead.
They carried the momentum over the break as Cal Poly added three straight points when play resumed.
Freshman Katie Russell ended their consecutive run of points, but the deficit was too great for the Musketeers to recover.
The Mustangs continued on to a 30-14 victory to take the frame.
The second game started off better for the Musketeers, as they jumped to an early 2-0 lead.
But the Mustangs would not give up that easily, as they fought back and advanced to a 4-3 lead.
The lead went back and forth briefly, but again Cal Poly pulled away.
The powerful Mustangs clinched game two by a score of 30-19, following an impressive 7-1 run.
With their backs against the wall, the Muskies started game three exchanging the lead with their ranked opponent several times.
But a four point run put Cal Poly ahead 8-4 and Xavier would never retain the lead, coming within three points multiple times and within one point once.
Another large Cal Poly run closed the door on the Xavier squad once and for all.
The Mustangs took game three by the score of 30-25, completing the 3-0 sweep.
The Musketeers have reason to be very proud of themselves.
Not only did they reach the Tournament for just the second time in program history, they knocked off two ranked opponents in the process and were voted in at-large.
Xavier is home to both the 2007 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, Jill Quayle, and the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year, Floyd Deaton.
At the end of the regular season, Quayle was ranked 11th in the country with an outstanding .402 hitting percentage.
She is the first Xavier student-athlete to receive such an honor since 2001, the only other year that the Musketeers have been to the NCAA Tournament.
