Takeaways: No. 22 Xavier Musketeers survive scare against South Carolina State

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Coming off a pre-Thanksgiving blowout loss to Michigan in the Fort Myers Tip-Off, No. 22 Xavier returned home after the holiday and came away with an ugly victory over South Carolina State, 74-71, Sunday.

Xavier improved to 6-0 at Cintas Center behind its solid defense, but the offense left a lot to be desired as the Musketeers struggled with turnovers before putting away the upset-minded Bulldogs in the second half.

Fort Myers Tip-Off takeaways: No. 22 Xavier gets wakeup call ahead of tough December slate

Observations from No. 22 Xavier Musketeers win over South Carolina State Bulldogs

Xavier blows big lead but survives late

Xavier led 58-47 with less than six minutes remaining in regulation before South Carolina State stormed back in it with a late flurry. The Bulldogs cut Xavier’s lead to a single point four different times, but the Musketeers were able to survive with free throws down the stretch.

Guard Trey Green went 4-for-4 in the final 10 seconds of regulation and Dayvion McKnight’s pair of freebies made it 74-71 with four seconds left. South Carolina State’s last-second heave was off the mark and Xavier avoided disaster.

Xavier comes out slow, stays slow

On a night with little energy from a Thanksgiving weekend crowd, Xavier was once again on the receiving end of an opening punch. After taking an 11-5 lead, South Carolina State guard Michael Teal went on a personal 8-0 run over a 50-second span with a pair of 3-pointers.

South Carolina State rattled off a 13-0 run before a Jerome Hunter floater helped get Xavier going. Hunter was Xavier’s best player off the bench early.

The veteran forward helped ignite a 21-4 run with a tip-in to tie it and a feed down low to Zach Freemantle that gave Xavier the lead for the remainder of the night.

Xavier got another big performance down low from Freemantle with 17 points and 7 rebounds, but it was another sluggish shooting night overall. Xavier shot 45.5% from the floor and just 5-of-18 from downtown. McKnight had 14 points with nine…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/takeaways-no-22-xavier-musketeers-000444007.html

Author : The Enquirer

Publish date : 2024-12-02 00:04:00

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