PORTLAND, Ore. ‒ If the objective was to learn and grow, then by those simple metrics, the Phil Knight Legacy event in Portland, Oregon, was a success, but sometimes those lessons are painful.
Sunday’s lesson in an 88-84 loss to No. 6 Gonzaga, taught the Musketeers a lesson they've been unable to learn over a rigorous four-game stretch ‒ the margin for error against excellent teams is razor thin.
Xavier basketball Souley Boum'Head of the snake': On Souley Boum's emergence for Xavier basketball
Xavier women's basketballMusketeers Xtra | Six-year-old girl signs with Xavier's women's basketball team
Xavier took a national powerhouse program down to the wire, overcame multiple 13-point deficits in the first half, and went on a spectacular run in the second half to take a 71-63 lead with 6:19 left.
But all the little things that seem to always get revealed in big games were Xavier’s downfall.
Fighting for fifty-fifty balls, caring about rebounding, and most importantly, the defensive end of the floor, let the Musketeers down again.
"We just played Gonzaga and in the second half we were 21-of-34 from the field. There are times when you can go in the gym alone and not make 21-of-34," Xavier head coach Sean Miller said. "We were 5-for-8 from 3, 3-for-3 from the free-throw line, and I think we had two or three turnovers in the second half."
Xavier put up 50 points in the second half and it wasn't good enough.
"Clearly, there's some things we're really doing well on offense," said Miller, who pointed out that Xavier accomplished that on Sunday without one of its best offensive pieces, Adam Kunkel, who suffered a concussion against Duke. "To be able to do that, there's some real things we feel good about as we move forward.
"But defensively, we're the same team that keeps giving up 88 and 81 and losing in these spots. Our inability to get rebounds, our inability to get key stops plagues us against this type of competition."
Against lesser competition, Xavier could probably get by and win games. But against No. 11 Indiana, No. 8 Duke and No. 6 Gonzaga, "You get exposed if you can't defend," Miller said.
Xavier was down 56-46 to Gonzaga when the Musketeers put together one of the more impressive stretches they've had this season. Xavier got it done at both ends of the floor and outscored the Bulldogs 25-7 to take a 71-63 lead.
Then over the final six minutes, Gonzaga didn't miss a shot as it put together an 8-0 run, followed by a 10-0 run.
The ending was rough. Xavier couldn't keep pace with a Gonzaga team that went 13-of-24 from beyond the arc and hit four triples in the final six minutes.
The best news on Sunday for Xavier, though, was that despite the loss, its two best players ‒ Colby Jones and Jack Nunge ‒ played like it.
Nunge led Xavier with 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting, putting the disastrous 1-for-13 performance against Duke behind him.
Jones showed his star potential and proved that there's no reason why he shouldn't feel comfortable taking over a game. The junior wing went 8-of-15 from the field and scored 22 points with seven rebounds and seven assists.
Xavier's issues aren't going away with the snap of a finger. The Musketeers will need to work when they get home and over the coming weeks to really clean up the areas that are letting them down.
But even with those issues, Xavier's kept pace, even in inconsistent performances, with some of the best teams in the country.
"You can play some really good basketball and not feel the benefits," said Miller. "I think what's really important for our team and our program is to not allow a loss, a couple of these losses, to strip us of our confidence.
"Sometimes when you start veering off in terms of results, you can really fracture from within and some of the things that might be right there for you to improve on, you kind of lose sight of it because our goal is to win and we didn't."
Miller said it's important that Xavier doesn't allow the last three or four games to steal its confidence.
Source link
