Xavier v. St. Louis: Box Score Breakdown

What happened: Xavier 66 - St. Louis 55

Tu did what Tu does.

In a game where Xavier looked out of sorts on the offensive end for much of the day, Tu Holloway took the scorer's role and posted 25-4-1. Xavier's leader posted a 7-13/3-4/8-10 shooting line and came up with every big shot the Muskies needed, from starting the game with a three to burying one from the corner in the second half as St. Louis was threatening to make it more of a game than it needed to be. Tu left his hand up until he got back to half court; by the time he dropped it back to his side, everyone knew the game was over.



Xavier was again dominant in the paint. Kenny went for 10-12-3 on 5-10/0-0/0-0, and McLean added 7-12-0 on 1-5/0-1/5-6. Both players got involved early on the glass, and Xavier enjoyed a 40-23 advantage on the boards. The Muskies also dominated the offensive glass 10-2, and McLean added 3 blocks during the course of the game.

As is often the case when the offense is stagnant, Xavier did not do a good job of taking care of the basketball or making effective passes. They turned the ball over 16 times and collected only 6 assists, half of which were credited to Big Kenny. The Billikens trapped off of the high screen all day, and Xavier had trouble breaking the trap, rotating the ball to take advantage of having the numerical advantage on the rest of the floor, and even keeping the offense within 30 feet of the bucket.

While it was statistically ugly, the bottom line is that the Muskies got a win and are riding into the A-10 tournament with some serious momentum. With almost a week to rest up and prepare for the games at Boardwalk Hall, Xavier has positioned itself well for picking up a couple more wins on the way to Selection Sunday.

Odds and ends:
-No Muskie not named Kenny Frease had more than one assist.

-Dante went into passive mode today, posting 2-3-1 on 1-3/0-1/0-0 shooting. He did pick up three steals though.

-Cheek and Tu combined for 10 turnovers and 2 assists.

-X will take on the winner of Dayton and UMass on Friday.

-As usual, stay tuned for Brad's full recap and the Twitter recap, both coming soon.