Musketeers Dominant in Get Right Game vs DePaul

Going into the final four games of the regular season, the Xavier Musketeers are in dire need of as many wins as possible. They picked up their first one on Wednesday night at the Cintas Center when the DePaul Blue Demons came to town.

Xavier had a 14 point lead in the first half, but DePaul was able to close the half out on a big run closing the gap to four points, making the game a 33-29 score. Xavier was led by Desmond Claude with nine points in the half, and Dayvion McKnight contributed eight of his own. The Musketeers star Quincy Olivari had trouble finding his shot in the first half, but that was short lived as the second half mirrored his last performance vs DePaul.

Coming out of the half, the game was too close for comfort. Xavier’s offense made sure that wasn’t the case throughout the remainder of the game. Olivari started the half off hot hitting his first 6 shots including going 3-3 from deep to start the half. Olivari ended up scoring 28 points in the final period going 10-11 from the floor in the half, 5-5 from the three-point area, and 3-4 from the free-throw line.

In the second half Xavier outscored DePaul 58-29, shot 68% from the floor as a team, and 73% from deep. Defensively, the Musketeers were locked in holding the Blue Demons to just 42% as a team and 18% from deep while also forcing ten turnovers, and only allowing five assists in comparison to Xavier's 15 as a team during the half.

This win snapped Xavier's four-game losing streak, makes their record 14-14 overall and 8-9 in the Big East.

Freshman shine:

Tonight, Xavier got big pick ups from their Freshman. Dailyn Swain and Trey Green continued their big play, Green scoring 13 points, Swain with a box score filling eight points, six rebounds and three steals. Also stepping up from the freshman include Kachi Nzeh getting his first start, and Lazar Djokovic who had to play big minutes in the second half after Abou Ousmane got in foul trouble.

Musketeers are battle tested:

While the win was big, Xavier also got a little beaten up in the game. Desmond Claude left after injuring his ankle on a layup and didn't return to the game. Sasa Ciani also checked out after just a minute of play in the first half and didn't return to the game. 

Bradley Nuggets:

With a little over four minutes remaining, Sean Miller put walk-on Bradley Colbert into the game. With 1:25 remaining in the game, Colbert hit his first three-point basket of his college career, also hitting the 10th three of the game giving all the fans in attendance free chicken nuggets from Chick Fil A.

Quincy 2K:

With his first basket of his excellent performance, Quincy Olivari went over the 2000 career point mark for his College Career. Olivari later said had he not sprained his wrist and COVID didn't occur, he believes he would have hit 3,000 points in his career.

Up Next for Xavier:

The Musketeers head to DC on Saturday night to face the Georgetown Hoyas. Earlier this year Georgetown gave Xavier a fight at Cintas where Dailyn Swain had a dunk in the last few seconds of the game to give Xavier a 92-91 victory. Tip-off will be at 7:30 PM EST and will be broadcast on FS1.