Eleanor Harris attempts a layup versus Olivet Nazarene University SXU Athletics
The Saint Xavier women’s basketball team took on Olivet Nazarene University at the Shannon Center this past Saturday the 20, dropping the game 79-84. Their overall record moves to 9-8 and 7-3 in conference.
Four of our SXU players finished the game in double digits, two recording double-doubles in the loss.
Sophomore center Eleanor Harris had a massive game of 17 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks, and three steals.
Junior guard Aaliyahna Derrell had the other double-double for the Cougars, dropping 11 points with 10 assists, as well as six steals and seven rebounds.
Junior center Alyssa Crenshaw was the other starter in double digits, finishing with 15 points.
Off the bench, sophomore guard Lia Chudzik finished with 10 points, going 2-2 on three-point attempts.
Both teams got off to a slow start, but SXU struggled more to get anything going on either side of the ball.
Despite a slow start, Olivet Nazarene became dominant quickly. They brought a fast-paced offense and defense which the Cougars grappled with from start to finish.
ONU’s defense brought the pressure as soon as the game started, meeting Saint Xavier’s players across half court and double teaming often. Because of this pressure, SXU was forced to take bad shots and passes, often resulting in turnovers.
The turnovers are what proved to be too hard for the Cougars to overcome. ONU had 19 turnovers to SXU’s 28, with Derrell owning half of those turnovers.
Olivet Nazarene also suffered from lazy passing in quarter one, but finished with a dominant 11-21 lead and SXU seemed far-removed from this game.
There was a momentum shift in the second quarter as SXU found their footing on offense, outscoring Olivet 24-15, but they were still struggling to keep up with the pace of the Tigers’ game.
Quarter two looked like it might be more of the same when ONU jumped out to a 13-28 lead, but the Cougars virtually shut down the Tigers offense for the rest of the quarter.
SXU’s three-point shooting improved in the second quarter as well (3-6). The Cougars are not big three-point shooters, so it was nice to see an improvement in that area, no matter how small.
It looked like Saint Xavier would enter the half down four points, but Derrell threw up a shot from the logo as time expired to bring the Cougars within one point.
The last two quarters were tightly contested with back-and-forth scoring.
Saint Xavier kept their offense going and outscored Olivet Nazarene 19-17 in the third, finishing the quarter with a 54-53 lead.
Part of the reason for SXU finding a spark on offense was their passing game. Passing became more strategic to break down the ONU presses.
Olivet stayed in this one by getting their shots to fall from beyond the arc; 15 of their 17 points came off of three-pointers.
Despite the Cougars’ outscoring the Tigers in the last two quarters, it still felt like ONU’s game. Their high-energy play was hard to keep up with and they were never out of the game.
The fourth started with a rowdy crowd, fans of both sides wanting to see a good finish to the competitive game.
Olivet brought even more pressure on defense, full-court pressing with double teams on whoever had the ball. Even with the stress of the ONU defense, Saint Xavier managed to score 25 points in the fourth.
Unfortunately for SXU and their fans, the Tigers broke down the SXU defense and created more opportunities on offense, dropping 31 points in the final quarter to pull off an upset.
Chudzik scored all 10 of her points in the fourth quarter, trying to give the starters some help late in the game.
Saint Xavier stayed in the game for as long as they could, ONU pulling away late in the quarter.
The Cougars got off to a slow start at the beginning of the season and have begun to turn things around as of late and are in a good place in conference standings. But, if they want to stay near the top of the CCAC standings, they’ll need to clean their game up to prevent fewer turnovers.
SXU has had good wins as of late, but have yet to find themselves in a winning streak longer than two games.
Their next game is tonight, January 24 in Elgin, IL., against Judson University. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.