Trey Townsend's 28 Points Lead Oakland To Upset In Cintas Over Xavier 78-76
(photo by Trent Grayson/@mr_kentucky24)
Coming into tonight, Xavier was a 15 point favorite.
This game was perfectly set up for a performance where you can win, rest and get ready to welcome Houston into your arena on Friday. But, Greg Kampe had Oakland had other plans.
Oakland's ability to switch defenses kept Xavier out of an offensive rhythm. Xavier, who had relied on their defense throughout the season, weren't able to keep Oakland from scoring in the paint. Oakland had 38 points in the paint and a +10 overall from the area over Xavier. One of the biggest reasons for that was Oakland's four-year player Trey Townsend.
(photo by Trent Grayson/@mr_kentucky24)
Townsend was a matchup issue throughout the day for Xavier, no matter what the Musketeers threw at him. Townsend had all his shots inside the perimeter going 11/18 from the field and 6/10 from the foul line. Townsend also added seven assists and 6 rebounds tonight.
Desmond Claude did everything tonight he possibly could to get the win for Xavier. Claude was on the floor for 38 minutes, had twenty-four points, continued to attack the paint and draw fouls shooting 12 times from the stripe. Claude had three early turnovers , but then settled in and held onto the ball. Desmond also forced three steals.
Xavier's inconsistent three-point shooting once again got the best of them in this game, in the first half they shot 5/12 from deep keeping them within fighting distance but in the second half settled for a lot of three's against Oaklands zone hitting just two of their 11 tries.
(photo by Trent Grayson/@Mr_kentucky24)
Xavier did a great job with second half points, and also got 28 points off of the bench but too many inconsistencies cost them the game. Reigning Big East Freshman of the week Lazar Djokovic had just two points. Thankfully they were picked up by other freshman like Trey Green who hit three 3's and Dailyn Swain who was so close to winning the game on his last-second heave. Swain also got his hands on two big steals including a break where he went coast-to-coast on a dunk giving them the lead.
Up next for Xavier, a visit to Cintas from the #6 Houston Cougars. Tip Off will be at 6:30 PM EST and the game will be televised on FS1.