kyxu
03-06-2009, 04:22 PM
Xavier streaks through Flyers for third-straight conference crown, 76-59
By Mike Damone
Early on in Xavier’s crucial victory over the Dayton Flyers (24-6, 10-5) Thursday evening, it appeared, strangely enough, that if the Musketeers were going to emerge victorious, the underclassmen were going to lead the way. But in a game involving two Atlantic 10 heavyweights with the conference regular season crown on the line, it would become obvious that veteran toughness and experience would prevail.
With the #17 Musketeers (24-5, 12-3) clinging to a six-point lead, 55-49, with just under eight minutes to go, the pair of Xavier seniors in BJ Raymond (14 points) and CJ Anderson (4 pts, 7 reb) took over. Anderson battled inside all evening against the Flyers’ taller interior players, in attempts to draw fouls or occasionally get a bucket, but wasn’t always successful.
But with the game winding down and the Flyers refusing to quit, Anderson grew more relentless, drawing a foul inside and sinking both free throws to put the Musketeers back up by eight. Xavier had been in similar situations all evening, and were never able to close out the Flyers, until Anderson won a battle for a loose ball against Charles Little (11 pts, 5 reb), took the ball to the post, pivoted and found his classmate Raymond spotting up for a three.
Raymond let loose, holding the crowd in trance as the ball rose and descended, finally setting the Cintas Center into eruption as the ball cut through the net, putting the Musketeers up 11, 60-49.
On Xavier’s next possession, junior Derrick Brown (11 pts, 12 reb) tried to take the ball inside after receiving an outlet pass, but found little room to operate. He did find Raymond set up, yet again, and Raymond let go for another bomb that shredded the net and gave Xavier its largest lead at the time, providing the dagger to the persistent Flyers, 63-49, with 6:10 to go and sent the partisan crowd into a fever pitch. Dayton would get no closer than 11 the rest of the way, en route to Xavier’s 76-59 trampling of the rival Flyers on Thursday night in Cincinnati.
The Xavier underclassmen set the tone early in the Musketeers’ victory, scoring 34 of Xavier’s 40 first-half points. But it was that sequence of plays late in the second half, all made by upperclassmen, that effectively sealed the deal for Xavier, extending the Flyers’ 28 years of futility in Cincinnati against the Musketeers, Xavier’s home winning streak in conference spanning three years and giving Xavier at least a share of its third-consecutive Atlantic 10 regular season title.
For the game’s final five minutes, the Flyers were drained, crippled by Raymond’s sudden catching of fire and Xavier’s determination to send its seniors off in style. With the shot clock winding down, Brown put an exclamation point on the victory with a long, arcing three that gave Xavier its largest lead of the game at 19, before Marcus Johnson (19 pts, 3 reb) went in for a dunk unabated to provide the final margin.
Xavier’s three leaders – Anderson, Raymond and Brown – struggled early on, but the slack was picked up by the Musketeers’ budding stars. After Johnson scored the opening points of the game to give the Flyers their only lead of the contest 20 seconds in, sophomore Dante Jackson (14 pts, 8 reb) took over, going on his own 11-0 run, setting the tone for the game and establishing Xavier as the aggressor.
Jackson canned a three from the top of the key, scored on a put-back, then dropped back-to-back three’s to put Xavier up 9, 11-2, with 17:18 left in the first half. A short jumper from Chris Wright (10 pts, 4 reb) cut the Flyers’ deficit to just four, 13-9, but the underclassmen for Xavier once again answered the bell, especially sophomore Jamel McLean.
After a Brown free throw, McLean (10 pts, 5 reb) scored on a put-back and later found freshman Brad Redford (9 points) open for a three to put Xavier back up by 9, 19-10, with just under nine minutes left in the first half. On a break, freshman Terrell Holloway (4 points) found McLean open under the basket again, where McLean drew the foul and drained both free throws, giving Xavier its first double-digit lead, 21-10.
A three from Johnson brought the Flyers back to within six, 23-17, but an 11-5 run put the Musketeers ahead, 34-22. Holloway penetrated for a lay-up, later found McLean again inside for a jam, then picked the pocket of London Warren (3 pts, 5 ast) for a breakaway lay-in.
McLean continued to exude his will on offense, taking his man baseline and jamming it home, then assisting freshman Kenny Frease (8 pts, 7 reb) on an easy lay-up, before repeating his baseline move for another thunderous dunk over the Flyer defense.
Raymond and Brown scored their only field goals of the first half to put Xavier up 13, 40-27, heading into the break. The Xavier defense had forced the Flyers into 10 first-half turnovers, while the Xavier reserves outscored Dayton’s reputedly deep bench 23-5.
Sensing the magnitude of the game, the Flyers refused to go down, thanks to their tight halfcourt defense. Xavier managed just three points in the first five minutes of the second half, while Dayton clawed back to within eight, 43-35, with 16:32 to go.
Warren got the second-half scoring started, followed with easy buckets inside by Marcus Johnson and Little and capped with a baseline jumper from Stephen Thomas (4 points). A score inside put Xavier back up by 12, 47-35, with 13:46 to go, but it wouldn’t last. Wright answered with a thunderous jam off the dribble, and Chris Johnson (4 pts, 7 reb) scored four-straight to bring Dayton back to within six.
But what kept Xavier as the aggressor was its ability to answer a Flyer charge with a dagger. Redford would often be that culprit, retorting with a long triple to put Xavier back up by nine.
Shortly thereafter, Wright would cut it to six again for Dayton, but Redford would answer yet again with a long three to put Xavier up, 53-44, with under 10 minutes left. Five quick points from Marcus Johnson would bring Dayton back to within six, 55-49, before the three Musketeers made the game-deciding stand.
Emotions ran high throughout the game, thanks mostly to a pre-game exchange between the Xavier and Dayton players and exacerbated when the Musketeers refused to shake the Flyers’ hands after the national anthem. After the omission of pleasantries, it was interesting to see which team played with a chip on their shoulder, and which one simply reacted.
The intensity of players like Jackson – who won this contest’s Blackburn-McCafferty MVP Trophy – dictated the tempo. Jackson’s scoring tapered off in the second half, but his energy bringing the ball up, crashing the boards and defending the perimeter propelled the Musketeers early on.
As a team, Xavier owned the glass, 48-33, corralling 17 offensive rebounds, and also holding the Flyers to 35.8 percent shooting for the game. Brown had a game-high 12 boards, while Raymond and Jackson tied for the team-high in points. Marcus Johnson led all scorers with 19. Though he didn’t show up on the score sheet much, junior Jason Love (2 pts, 6 reb, 5 blk) recorded a game-high five blocks and was stellar defensively, as well as on the glass.
The win was a big one for the Musketeers for several reasons, but most importantly, the victory secures for Xavier the top seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament next week in Atlantic City. This will be the third-consecutive season Xavier goes into the conference tourney with the top seed, however Xavier has not made it beyond the conference semifinals since 2006.
The Musketeers now head to Richmond, VA for their final regular season contest to take on the Richmond Spiders on Saturday at 7 p.m. Raymond led all scorers with 22 points in Xavier’s 86-61 victory last season over the Spiders in Cincinnati. However, Xavier has not played at Richmond since the 2005-06 season, when Xavier won 63-51. A win on Saturday for the Musketeers would give them the Atlantic 10 regular season title outright. The Spiders (16-14, 8-7) are coming off a 64-62 win at Charlotte.
By Mike Damone
Early on in Xavier’s crucial victory over the Dayton Flyers (24-6, 10-5) Thursday evening, it appeared, strangely enough, that if the Musketeers were going to emerge victorious, the underclassmen were going to lead the way. But in a game involving two Atlantic 10 heavyweights with the conference regular season crown on the line, it would become obvious that veteran toughness and experience would prevail.
With the #17 Musketeers (24-5, 12-3) clinging to a six-point lead, 55-49, with just under eight minutes to go, the pair of Xavier seniors in BJ Raymond (14 points) and CJ Anderson (4 pts, 7 reb) took over. Anderson battled inside all evening against the Flyers’ taller interior players, in attempts to draw fouls or occasionally get a bucket, but wasn’t always successful.
But with the game winding down and the Flyers refusing to quit, Anderson grew more relentless, drawing a foul inside and sinking both free throws to put the Musketeers back up by eight. Xavier had been in similar situations all evening, and were never able to close out the Flyers, until Anderson won a battle for a loose ball against Charles Little (11 pts, 5 reb), took the ball to the post, pivoted and found his classmate Raymond spotting up for a three.
Raymond let loose, holding the crowd in trance as the ball rose and descended, finally setting the Cintas Center into eruption as the ball cut through the net, putting the Musketeers up 11, 60-49.
On Xavier’s next possession, junior Derrick Brown (11 pts, 12 reb) tried to take the ball inside after receiving an outlet pass, but found little room to operate. He did find Raymond set up, yet again, and Raymond let go for another bomb that shredded the net and gave Xavier its largest lead at the time, providing the dagger to the persistent Flyers, 63-49, with 6:10 to go and sent the partisan crowd into a fever pitch. Dayton would get no closer than 11 the rest of the way, en route to Xavier’s 76-59 trampling of the rival Flyers on Thursday night in Cincinnati.
The Xavier underclassmen set the tone early in the Musketeers’ victory, scoring 34 of Xavier’s 40 first-half points. But it was that sequence of plays late in the second half, all made by upperclassmen, that effectively sealed the deal for Xavier, extending the Flyers’ 28 years of futility in Cincinnati against the Musketeers, Xavier’s home winning streak in conference spanning three years and giving Xavier at least a share of its third-consecutive Atlantic 10 regular season title.
For the game’s final five minutes, the Flyers were drained, crippled by Raymond’s sudden catching of fire and Xavier’s determination to send its seniors off in style. With the shot clock winding down, Brown put an exclamation point on the victory with a long, arcing three that gave Xavier its largest lead of the game at 19, before Marcus Johnson (19 pts, 3 reb) went in for a dunk unabated to provide the final margin.
Xavier’s three leaders – Anderson, Raymond and Brown – struggled early on, but the slack was picked up by the Musketeers’ budding stars. After Johnson scored the opening points of the game to give the Flyers their only lead of the contest 20 seconds in, sophomore Dante Jackson (14 pts, 8 reb) took over, going on his own 11-0 run, setting the tone for the game and establishing Xavier as the aggressor.
Jackson canned a three from the top of the key, scored on a put-back, then dropped back-to-back three’s to put Xavier up 9, 11-2, with 17:18 left in the first half. A short jumper from Chris Wright (10 pts, 4 reb) cut the Flyers’ deficit to just four, 13-9, but the underclassmen for Xavier once again answered the bell, especially sophomore Jamel McLean.
After a Brown free throw, McLean (10 pts, 5 reb) scored on a put-back and later found freshman Brad Redford (9 points) open for a three to put Xavier back up by 9, 19-10, with just under nine minutes left in the first half. On a break, freshman Terrell Holloway (4 points) found McLean open under the basket again, where McLean drew the foul and drained both free throws, giving Xavier its first double-digit lead, 21-10.
A three from Johnson brought the Flyers back to within six, 23-17, but an 11-5 run put the Musketeers ahead, 34-22. Holloway penetrated for a lay-up, later found McLean again inside for a jam, then picked the pocket of London Warren (3 pts, 5 ast) for a breakaway lay-in.
McLean continued to exude his will on offense, taking his man baseline and jamming it home, then assisting freshman Kenny Frease (8 pts, 7 reb) on an easy lay-up, before repeating his baseline move for another thunderous dunk over the Flyer defense.
Raymond and Brown scored their only field goals of the first half to put Xavier up 13, 40-27, heading into the break. The Xavier defense had forced the Flyers into 10 first-half turnovers, while the Xavier reserves outscored Dayton’s reputedly deep bench 23-5.
Sensing the magnitude of the game, the Flyers refused to go down, thanks to their tight halfcourt defense. Xavier managed just three points in the first five minutes of the second half, while Dayton clawed back to within eight, 43-35, with 16:32 to go.
Warren got the second-half scoring started, followed with easy buckets inside by Marcus Johnson and Little and capped with a baseline jumper from Stephen Thomas (4 points). A score inside put Xavier back up by 12, 47-35, with 13:46 to go, but it wouldn’t last. Wright answered with a thunderous jam off the dribble, and Chris Johnson (4 pts, 7 reb) scored four-straight to bring Dayton back to within six.
But what kept Xavier as the aggressor was its ability to answer a Flyer charge with a dagger. Redford would often be that culprit, retorting with a long triple to put Xavier back up by nine.
Shortly thereafter, Wright would cut it to six again for Dayton, but Redford would answer yet again with a long three to put Xavier up, 53-44, with under 10 minutes left. Five quick points from Marcus Johnson would bring Dayton back to within six, 55-49, before the three Musketeers made the game-deciding stand.
Emotions ran high throughout the game, thanks mostly to a pre-game exchange between the Xavier and Dayton players and exacerbated when the Musketeers refused to shake the Flyers’ hands after the national anthem. After the omission of pleasantries, it was interesting to see which team played with a chip on their shoulder, and which one simply reacted.
The intensity of players like Jackson – who won this contest’s Blackburn-McCafferty MVP Trophy – dictated the tempo. Jackson’s scoring tapered off in the second half, but his energy bringing the ball up, crashing the boards and defending the perimeter propelled the Musketeers early on.
As a team, Xavier owned the glass, 48-33, corralling 17 offensive rebounds, and also holding the Flyers to 35.8 percent shooting for the game. Brown had a game-high 12 boards, while Raymond and Jackson tied for the team-high in points. Marcus Johnson led all scorers with 19. Though he didn’t show up on the score sheet much, junior Jason Love (2 pts, 6 reb, 5 blk) recorded a game-high five blocks and was stellar defensively, as well as on the glass.
The win was a big one for the Musketeers for several reasons, but most importantly, the victory secures for Xavier the top seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament next week in Atlantic City. This will be the third-consecutive season Xavier goes into the conference tourney with the top seed, however Xavier has not made it beyond the conference semifinals since 2006.
The Musketeers now head to Richmond, VA for their final regular season contest to take on the Richmond Spiders on Saturday at 7 p.m. Raymond led all scorers with 22 points in Xavier’s 86-61 victory last season over the Spiders in Cincinnati. However, Xavier has not played at Richmond since the 2005-06 season, when Xavier won 63-51. A win on Saturday for the Musketeers would give them the Atlantic 10 regular season title outright. The Spiders (16-14, 8-7) are coming off a 64-62 win at Charlotte.