Coming off a pre-Thanksgiving blowout loss to Michigan in the Fort Myers Tip-Off, No. 22 Xavier returned home after the holiday and came away with an ugly victory over South Carolina State, 74-71, Sunday.
Xavier improved to 6-0 at Cintas Center behind its solid defense, but the offense left a lot to be desired as the Musketeers struggled with turnovers before putting away the upset-minded Bulldogs in the second half.
Fort Myers Tip-Off takeaways: No. 22 Xavier gets wakeup call ahead of tough December slate
Observations from No. 22 Xavier Musketeers win over South Carolina State Bulldogs
Xavier blows big lead but survives late
Xavier led 58-47 with less than six minutes remaining in regulation before South Carolina State stormed back in it with a late flurry. The Bulldogs cut Xavier’s lead to a single point four different times, but the Musketeers were able to survive with free throws down the stretch.
Guard Trey Green went 4-for-4 in the final 10 seconds of regulation and Dayvion McKnight’s pair of freebies made it 74-71 with four seconds left. South Carolina State’s last-second heave was off the mark and Xavier avoided disaster.
Xavier comes out slow, stays slow
On a night with little energy from a Thanksgiving weekend crowd, Xavier was once again on the receiving end of an opening punch. After taking an 11-5 lead, South Carolina State guard Michael Teal went on a personal 8-0 run over a 50-second span with a pair of 3-pointers.
South Carolina State rattled off a 13-0 run before a Jerome Hunter floater helped get Xavier going. Hunter was Xavier’s best player off the bench early.
The veteran forward helped ignite a 21-4 run with a tip-in to tie it and a feed down low to Zach Freemantle that gave Xavier the lead for the remainder of the night.
Xavier got another big performance down low from Freemantle with 17 points and 7 rebounds, but it was another sluggish shooting night overall. Xavier shot 45.5% from the floor and just 5-of-18 from downtown. McKnight had 14 points with nine from the charity stripe and Hunter added 10 off the bench.
Xavier had a slow start from the free-throw line but made them when it mattered most in the final minute of regulation. Overall, Xavier went 26-of-36.
Xavier’s turnover issues persist in ugly offensive performance
After committing a season-high 19 turnovers in the loss to Michigan in Florida, Xavier came out of the locker room sloppy on Sunday with seven first-half turnovers against the Bulldogs.
Xavier led by as many as 10 in the opening period, but turnovers and a 3-of-10 performance from 3-point range allowed South Carolina State to hang around.
Xavier finished with 16 turnovers, which kept the Musketeers from finding any rhythm on the offensive end.
Miller shortens rotation with Dante Maddox Jr. sitting
Xavier has received little production from its bench through seven games so far and Miller shortened his usually nine-player rotation Sunday. Toledo transfer Dante Maddox Jr. did not play in the first half. He entered with 14:42 remaining in regulation but was pulled less than a minute later.
Entering Sunday, Maddox was averaging 15.3 minutes per game but was shooting just 28.6% from the field. In two games in Florida, Maddox totaled just four points on 1-of-7 shooting.
Miller stuck with his starters for the majority of the second half. Forward John Hugley did not see action over the final 20 minutes and Green came in just for free-throw shooting purposes in the final two minutes.
Xavier has first true road game on deck
The Musketeers will start the week by seeing if their 2-1 performance over the last six days will be enough to stay in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
After that, Xavier will visit TCU for the final Big East-Big 12 battle. It’s Xavier’s first true road game after a pair of neutral site games last week in Fort Myers. Xavier did have a preseason road game, when it beat Dayton in a charity contest Oct. 20.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Observations as No. 22 Xavier Musketeers beat South Carolina State
