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Winning all the buy games in the world by 45 is nice, but it isn’t going to move the needle in March when it comes time to evaluate a team’s resume for the NCAA Tournament. To get there, you have to beat someone with substance at some point and Xavier took their first chance to do so with style tonight at The Greenbrier. Mississippi State is not expected to challenge at the top of the SEC this season, but they are a solid Q2 opportunity on a neutral floor and the first line on a resume Xavier hopes to fill out before Selection Sunday.
The Bulldogs grabbed the first four points of the night, but Xavier punched back immediately and never gave the lead back after Tru Washington (21/8/4) put on a personal 5-0 run. Washington was Xavier’s star tonight, but he was far from alone in putting his stamp on the first half as Nikos Chitikoudis (11/6/1) stepped into the void left by Mike Nwoko’s (4/6/1) foul issues and gave Xavier 12 excellent minutes in the first frame. Xavier started to gain separation near the midway point of the half when Ruben Dominguez (9/0/0) was fouled shooting a three and cashed out all three free throws then cut out the middle man and drained a three the next time down to put X up 7 and put the Bulldogs on the ropes. Mississippi State star Josh Hubbard sparked to life to bring the game back to within a point with 3:34 to play, but Xavier grabbed back the momentum through back to back threes from Kalek House (3/4/3) and Gabriel Pozzato (9/1/0) and, after a bit of back and forth, a four point play from Pozzato stake Xavier to a 10 point halftime lead and gave this team a chance to show they had learned from last year’s heartbreaks and could close out a contest.
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In a series of events familiar to people who remembered the first half of the game, Mississippi State scored first and then Tru Washington scored Xavier’s first five points followed by a Nikos Chitikoudis bucket. That pushed the lead to a dozen and a triple from Jovan Milicevic (12/3/0)…
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Publish date : 2026-11-14 05:13:00
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