Xavier's men's basketball team survived Tuesday's test against Southern, 79-59, which was conveniently sandwiched between last Saturday's Crosstown Shootout and Friday's Big East Conference opener at Georgetown.
For it being exam week, and a potential trap game, the Musketeers did well to walk away with a 20-point win.
Xavier's starters had a lot to do with that.
"One stat that really speaks to our team is we had 27 assists on 29 made field goals," Xavier head coach Sean Miller said. "Very difficult to do."
It was a choppy game without a lot of rhythm. Xavier was expecting Southern to bring full-court pressure throughout the game like the Jaguars had been doing all season, but Southern went with a different approach and the Musketeers had to adjust on the fly. Miller was happy with his team's performance, closing out the nonconference schedule with an 8-3 record.
"If you take away the 11-1 burst there at the end that they had on us ... I thought for the most part, (we) had a good performance ‒ defense, offense ‒ and I'll just mention Souley Boum and Colby Jones they had 13 assists between the two of them with only one turnover," said Miller. "Also thought Zach Freemantle, 15 (points) and eight (rebounds), he only had one turnover. I thought those three guys really carried us tonight."
Boum led the way with 17 points. Jones had 10, and Jack Nunge added 13 points and seven rebounds.
It was a game that Xavier controlled, but it was also clear what the Musketeers were trying to accomplish.
Xavier could have tightened up its rotation and probably won Tuesday's game by a larger margin.
But Xavier's still searching to find depth and meaningful contributions off its bench.
So Miller substituted early and often. Xavier went with some lineups that were new, all in an effort to try and get the bench more involved.
"Right now, everybody on our team is incredibly important," said Miller. "We wanted to continue to develop depth."
Several of those rotational players stood out. Jerome Hunter made winning plays, said Miller, and he makes Xavier a quicker team when he's on the floor.
Hunter played 16 minutes, scored four points, blocked a shot, grabbed three rebounds, and defended his position well.
Miller said the rest of the bench showed some good signs. The game got a little shaky when Southern turned up its full-court pressure against Xavier's reserves and they committed some turnovers.
There was good and bad from Desmond Claude, Kam Craft, KyKy Tandy, Cesare Edwards and Dieonte Miles.
Claude committed five turnovers, but he had four assists. Craft was aggressive on offense. He hit a pair of 3-pointers, and finished with eight points and four rebounds. Tandy never got going offensively, but he shared the ball generously with three assists, blocked a shot and came up with two steals.
The biggest question is at the big man spot. Edwards and Miles got equal run, but neither really solidified their position as the first big man off the bench.
"We're going to keep working," Miller said of his entire bench. "We're going to develop them. I know this, each one of them is better today than they would have been six weeks ago. Now we have to keep making that same improvement here as we approach the Big East season."
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