Xavier Defeats Matta And Butler At Cintas 85-71; Now .500 in Big East Competition
The Xavier Musketeers come out of their win Tuesday night riding some momentum to a much needed two-game win streak in Big East play.
At the first media timeout, the Butler Bulldogs held an 8 point lead over the Musketeers, but coming out of the timeout Sean Miller's squad was locked in and ready to take over.
From that point on in the half, Xavier's guards took control of the game extending the lead all the way up to nineteen with just 3 minutes left after a big Trey Green three-point basket.
.@Treygreen02 connects on another 3️⃣! pic.twitter.com/QaCWJHjRfI
— Xavier Basketball (@XavierMBB) January 17, 2024
Desmond Claude, Dayvion McKnight and Quincy Olivari also had major contributions to the game for Xavier. Along with Green, the four combined for all but 5 of Xavier's points in the first half. Those 5 are credited to big man Abou Ousmane who also hit a 3 himself from the top of the key.
.@IamAbouOusmane for 3️⃣!! pic.twitter.com/LM3vBtXq3e
— Xavier Basketball (@XavierMBB) January 17, 2024
At the half the Musketeers led 46-32 after Butler went on a small 5-point run to close the period.
In the second half, Thad Matta and crew leaned on St. John's transfer Posh Alexander to jumpstart the Bulldog offense. Alexander was aggressive getting to the free-throw line, but with twelve minutes to go in the game went on an 11-0 run by himself contributing to Butler's 13-0 run, and taking the 60-58 lead.
After the U12 media timeout, Xavier responded with a 13-0 run of their own taking a 71-60 lead before Posh Alexander hit another jumper for Butler ending the scoring run. During Xavier's lengthy scoring run Claude was aggressive for the Musketeers pushing the pace and also getting to the stripe getting 6 free-throws in the last seven minutes of the game as well as attacking the rim for two big layups to help seal the game. With twenty-five seconds remaining in the game, Quincy Olivari made the final dagger, a deep three-pointer making the score 85-71, which ended up being the final score.
Takeaways:
-Desmond Claude is on a roll! After a huge game at Providence on Saturday, Claude followed up that performance with a twenty-six point scoring performance and went 8-8 from the line.
-Dayvion McKnight had another twenty-point performance tonight for the Musketeers. You can see McKnight getting more comfortable running the offense and leading his teammates.
- Now at 3-3 Xavier is tied with Marquette at 6th in the Big East conference.
Up Next:
Xavier stays home for the second game in this weeks Home stand on Friday night when they welcome Ed Cooley and the Georgetown Hoyas. Tip-Off of that game will be at 6:30 PM EST and will be broadcast on FS1.