Seniors step up in statement wins
Xavier rides senior leadership to close victories; take control of A-10
Doug Tifft
Sports Editor
goxavier.com
Josh Duncan has hit his last 15 field goal attempts to lead the Musketeers to two ctricial victories over Charlotte and Rhode Island.
There are many things that basketball purists point to as keys to postseason success including: senior leadership, solid guard play and strong defense, to name a few.
If Billy Packer and company really know what they are talking about, then the Xavier Musketeers are shaping up for a deep postseason run.
The Musketeers are led by seniors Drew Lavender, Stanley Burrell and Josh Duncan.
Their leadership is usually called upon in tough road games, such as the ones Xavier faced recently in wins over Saint Joseph’s, Charlotte and Rhode Island.
In these situations the seniors, namely Josh Duncan, stepped up to guide the team to last minute victories.
Duncan earned Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honors after he averaged 19 points and six rebounds in wins over Saint Joseph’s and Charlotte.
Saint Joe’s came to Cincinnati a game behind Xavier in the conference standings, and played like an elite team, even in the absence of top scorer Ahmad Nivens, who played only 15 minutes due to foul trouble.
At the end of a back-and-forth battle featuring six lead changes, Xavier needed a strong and-one by Duncan, and a string of excellent passes by Burrell and Lavender to set up a corner three pointer by B. J. Raymond to seal a 76-72 victory.
Xavier head coach Sean Miller pointed out Lavender’s value after the game saying, “If there’s a defining moment for Drew, it would be that pass he threw to B.J. You have to have that savvy. There’s no teaching when it comes to that. You just know how to do it.”
The following game at Charlotte was Josh Duncan’s best performance of the year, and it came at the best possible time, as Lavender nursed an ankle injury and Burrell was sidelined with foul trouble.
It was in this game that Duncan truly evolved into a dominant force, the likes of which the Xavier coaches had been hoping the 6’9” forward would become all season.
He was 7-7 from the field, including 5-5 from three point range, on his way to a career-best 25 points.
“The emergence of Josh Duncan has really taken our team to another level,” Miller said after the 62-60 victory.
As Xavier prepared for Monday’s matchup with Rhode Island, they received word that they had been ranked 10th in the Associated Press college basketball poll, the highest the school has been since a No. 10 ranking the second to last week of the 2002-2003 season.
The ranking is due in large part to the other two seniors on Xavier’s roster, Lavender and Burrell, who comprise one of the country’s best backcourt tandems.
The importance of the pair was obvious in Monday night’s 81-77 win at Rhode Island.
With Lavender plauged by an ankle injury sustained during the second half of the Charlotte victory, Rhode Island controlled the pace of the game.
The Muskies struggled against an up-tempo style, and were stagnant against the Rams’ zone as Lavender played only 28 minutes.
When Lavender did return to the floor to allow Burrell to assume his natural position of shooting guard, the offense was running on all cylinders and the Musketeers were in control of the tempo.
The win displayed Xavier’s toughness, being able to go on the road to place where no visiting team has won this season with their star injured, and emerge with a victory.
That toughness is exemplified in no better way than the defensive effort Xavier brings to the floor every time.
Burrell has received some well-deserved attention for his defensive excellence, which he displayed again against Rhode Island in holding Rams’ second leading scorer Jimmy Baron to two points on 0-7 shooting, yet the team as a whole has bought in to an increased effort on the defensive end.
Xavier is second in the Atlantic 10 in team defense, holding opponents to only 63.2 points per game.
“The thing that knocks me out about this Xavier team is their fierceness defensively,” Saint Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli said after falling to Xavier. “They’ve got a lot of Sean in them. He looks mild-mannered, but he’s going to fight you, scrap you.”
The Musketeers will need to clamp down this week as they will host the high scoring Duquesne Dukes on Thursday.
The Dukes are leading the conference with an average of 84.1 points per game, riding an up-tempo attack with balanced scoring.
The Muskies complete a tough week of games with a Sunday trip to Dayton to face the desperate Flyers, who have lost six of their last nine games, and badly need Sunday’s game to strengthen their case for a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Women ride roller coaster to top
Muskies drop one, then rebound with victory to regain first in conference
Emily Neubauer
Sports Writer
goxavier.com
Junior guard Jerri Taylor had 11 points and three rebounds in Xavier’s win over Charlotte.
The basketball season inevitably has its ups and downs.
The tumultuous ride of the Xavier women’s 2008 season has seen a recent upswing, as the lady Muskies have won seven straight games and individual players were receiving various accolades heading into a matchup with Dayton on Thursday.
The ride went slightly downhill, however, when Xavier fell to Dayton by a mere one point, 44-43.
The odds were good heading into the match up.
XU had won the previous nine games against Dayton, but this year Dayton had the better record.
With the victory, the Flyers improved to 20-5 while the Musketeers fell to 17-7 on the season.
Sophomore forward Amber Harris scored 11 points and snared 14 rebounds for the Musketeers, while freshman center Ta’Shia Phillips scored 14 points and added 10 rebounds.
Harris was 7-12 from the floor and the double-double was Phillips’ 13th of the season.
Junior guard Jerri Taylor added eight points and buried a pair of three point field goals.
The Musketeers started out cold, failing to make their first seven attempts from the floor.
Offense eventually heated up as XU rallied for a 15-3 run over a 9:20 stretch to jump out to a 20-15 lead with 2:10 remaining in the first half.
But 14 minutes into the decisive second half, the Musketeers began to fall.
Xavier trailed by 10 points, 40-30, after Dayton’s Kenel Ross made a 3-pointer.
Harris and Phillips would get the Musketeers back in the game, leading the way for a 13-1 run over the next 4:10.
Harris scored seven points during the stretch and capped the run with a driving lay-up with 2:40 left in regulation.
However, UD’s Karah Cloxton hit a contested 3-pointer with 1:56 to go as UD reclaimed the lead it would not surrender.
Along with one loss this week , there was also one victory.
On Sunday, Xavier defeated Charlotte with a final score of 71-62 at Cintas Center.
Freshman standout Phillips recorded game-highs with 21 points and 14 rebounds.
The double-double was Phillips’ 14th of the season.
Unlike the game against Dayton, Xavier dominated from the start.
XU started the game with a 6-0 run and led the entire first half.
The Musketeers shot an impressive 55.2 percent for the first half and finished 50 percent for the entire game.
Harris added 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
Combined, Phillips and Harris blocked 10 shots.
Junior forward Tudy Reed scored 14 points and had a clutch and-one down the stretch.
Taylor was the fourth Musketeer in double-figures with 11 points and she also tied a career best with five assists.
With the crucial win, XU improves to 18-7 on the year and works back into a tie for first place in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Where are they now: Justin Doellman
Tyler Grote
Sports Writer
goxavier.com
Justin Doellman has moved on to play professionally in France after a great career at Xavier.
“The Run,” Xavier’s 2004 journey to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, was the first period in a long time where it was more socially acceptable to be seen in Cincinnati during March wearing blue instead of black and red.
The Cincinnati Enquirer was actually giving the Musketeers the front page and the Queen City was paying special attention to what was stirring in Norwood.
With the emergence of this special and unique squad came the emergence of a young freshman.
Justin Doellman provided Musketeer fans with a glimpse of what to expect in his next three years.
This 6’9” forward was unconventional in the sense that he was more prone to throw up a shot beyond the arc before going down low to post up in the paint.
He was one of two freshmen starters on the 2004 squad that made “The Run,” the other being Justin Cage.
He played in a combined total of 132 games and started his last 123 games in a row.
He led the Musketeers in his senior year averaging 13.7 points per game and finished 17th on the Musketeers all-time scoring list.
Doellman also finished third on Xavier’s all-time block list with 140 career blocked shots.
In the 2006-2007 season, Doellman was selected to the Atlantic 10 Conference First Team.
So what ever happened to this communications art major?
For starters, he married his college sweetheart, Meredith Fendt, last summer.
Beyond that, Doellman had one unsuccessful try at the pros and was not selected in the 2007 NBA draft.
He participated in the NBA’s Orlando Pre-Draft Camp, but didn’t seem to have what scouts were looking for.
Not to worry, Justin Doellman is still on the hardwood.
He’s a member of the Cholet basketball team in France; a part of the French Men’s Pro A division in the National Basketball League (LNB). Cholet Basket is set to play JDA Dijon on the 16th of February.
They are struggling a bit as they are currently in eighth place out of the 16 Pro A teams. Doellman played just 13 minutes in Cholet’s last game in which they lost 71-69 to Strasbourg and went 0 for 5 in the field.
Catch up with Doellman by checking out Cholet’s website at www.cholet-basket.com.
Doug Tifft
Sports Editor
Bobinski added to selection committee
Xavier Associate Vice President and Athletic Director Mike Bobinski has been selected to serve on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee.
His five year term on the committee will begin on Sept. 1.
Bobinski will be one of the 10 members on the committee, which consists of athletic directors and commissioners of Division I member institutions and conferences, and oversees the administration of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, including the selection, seeding and bracketing of teams for the tournament.
The committee also serves as stewards for the good of the game, monitoring and taking action as appropriate regarding issues affecting college basketball.
Bobinski will attend the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament this season in Denver in order to learn the duties from an incumbent committee member.
Bobinski, a 1979 graduate of Notre Dame, came to Xavier in 1998 as athletic director, then in 2004 he moved to the position of associate vice president.
In 2006 moved back into the position of athletic director, taking the dual position that he now occupies.
Tearing up the track
The Xavier men’s and women’s indoor track teams had strong showings at the 2008 Atlantic 10 Indoor Track meet at the University of Rhode Island on Sunday, Feb. 17.
Senior Becky Clark led the women’s squad with a school record time in the mile of 4:53.76, placing her fourth in the event.
Her teammate, freshman Christina Schneider, turned in a career best time of 17:53.26 in the 5,000 meter to earn third place.
Sophomore Bethany Moore also recorded a career best, running the 1,000 meter race in 3:00.72.
On the men’s side, Luke Beuerlein placed seventh in the mile with a time of 4:18.89.
Also, junior Clinton Womack placed eighth in the 1,000 meter with a time of 2:32.60.
The teams have some time off now, before a March 8 trip to Las Vegas for the University of Nevada at Las Vegas Collegiate Classic.
