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No. 24 Muskies Slide Past Bonnies in A-10 Opener
By
Jay Skeldon,
1/9/2008
Despite a sluggish effort, the No. 24 Xavier Musketeers won their fifth straight game on Wednesday night at Cintas Center, defeating visiting St. Bonaventure, 83-68. Junior forwards B.J. Raymond and C.J. Anderson notched career-high scoring efforts as the duo tallied 21 points apiece. Anderson added 11 rebounds to record his first double-double as a Muskie. XU (13-3 overall) moves to 1-0 in the Atlantic 10, while the Bonnies drop to 6-9 overall and 0-1 in the league. The Muskies are now 10-3 all-time in Atlantic 10 conference openers.
X started the game on a 9-0 run and it looked as if SBU, who has not won on the road in eight tries this season, would be completely outmatched. But, the Bonnies went on a 10-2 run to pull within one point, 11-10, on a Zarryon Fereti 3-pointer with 13:16 left.
The lead would hover around 3-to-5 points for the next seven minutes until Xavier reeled off a 12-3 run to lead 36-22 with 3:14 remaining. XU would maintain this margin into halftime as it led 44-30 at the break.
Despite the 14-point lead, Xavier did turn the ball over eight times in the first half. Many of the errors were unforced in nature including multiple errant passes. Xavier did clean up its ball care in the second half, as it recorded just two more turnovers for the balance of the game.
St. Bonaventure, coached by former Xavier assistant Mark Schmidt, devised a solid defensive plan. The plan consisted of switching up the SBU defensive scheme regularly from 1-2-2 and 3-2 zones to man-to-man. This clearly disrupted Xavier's offensive rhythm and prevented it from getting fully into the flow of the game. The Musketeers appeared to be out of sync and overly casual at times on offense. Fortunately for X, it once again shot the ball extremely well. The team shot 29-of-58 (50%) from the field overall, including 12-of-27 3-pointers (44.4%).
Raymond and Anderson were the only Musketeers to record double-figures scoring. Drew Lavender finished with nine points, five assists, and one turnover. However, his effort was muted as the senior guard was limited in the first half due to foul trouble. Fellow senior guard Stanley Burrell added a respectable eight points, five assists, while also turning the ball over one time. Josh Duncan added eight points, but turned the ball over four times.
The defensive effort in the second half was another story, however. The Muskies allowed the Bonnies to shoot 46.3% (25-of-54) from the field and a scorching 61.5% (11-of-18) from behind the rainbow. Combining Xavier's less than stellar offensive execution and defensive lapses, the outcome may have been different had X been playing one of the stronger Atlantic 10 opponents.
The Muskies will glean what lessons may be learned from its shortcomings in this win and attempt to improve for its next contest. That next contest comes with a short turnaround for the X-Men as it faces Fordham on Saturday. The Rams (6-7, 0-1) lost its A-10 Opener, 74-62, to Duquesne on Wednesday evening. Saturday's tipoff is set for Noon at Cintas Center.
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