SXU Athletics
The men’s basketball team was not as fortunate this week as the women’s basketball team. Despite Saturday’s game being a close back-and-forth match, the Fighting Saints would end up victorious over the Saint Xavier Cougars.
Saint Francis started out fast scoring 18 points, including two 3 pointers, while holding the Cougars to just six points in the first nine minutes of the first half.
But the cougars would then go on a 10-2 run to close the gap against the #24 Saint Francis Fighting Saints 20–16.
Throughout the rest of the first half, these two teams went back and forth with one another, trading basket after basket in what was a tightly contested first half between Saint Francis and Saint Xavier.
The half would end with Saint Francis leading 37–33.
The second half started much like the first half with Saint Francis going on a run to push their lead to 48–38 with just over 13 minutes left.
Also like in the first half, these teams would trade baskets with each other for most of the game.
With 3:45 left in the game, the resilient Cougars, down by seven, tried desperately to make a comeback on the road in a very partisan crowd.
The Cougar bench chanted “Defense” throughout the comeback, attempting showing their support for the Cougars.
A late three pointer from the Fighting Saints’ Jo Jo Ballestero, who scored a game high of 22 points off the St. Francis bench, seemed to be the nail in the coffin.
Yet, the Cougars still fought back, refusing to give up or back down against their Goliath-like opponents.
In spite of that, David could not beat Goliath as the Cougars lost the game 79–70.
The stars of the game for Saint Xavier were Jack Krieger and Stanley Moore.
Krieger led the Cougars with 19 points in 35 minutes.
Moore finished second in points with 15, and also dishing out three assists and collecting three rebounds.
One of the key reasons why the team lost this game is because they could not control the boards. Saint Xavier was outrebounded in this game 31-24, including giving up 11 offensive rebounds that resulted in 14 second chance points for St. Francis.
Another detriment to the Cougars attempt to win was their lack of offense and defense from inside the paint.
The team gave up 44 points in the paint to their conference rival while scoring only 32 points in the paint. The lack of offense in the paint allowed Saint Francis’ defense to play the three point line, which resulted in the Cougars shooting 33.3% from beyond the arc. The lack of offense in the paint also diluted the chances that the team had at scoring easy points, getting to the free throw line only 13 times.
Another area of concern is the number of assists by Saint Xavier in this game as well.
With only 13 assists, it shows that the team is not passing the ball to one another and relying a lot on Krieger to bail them out with late second heroics.
Also, by not passing the ball, they allowed St. Francis to key in on Krieger late in the game when the team tried to make a comeback.
Despite the negatives, there were positives that the team can build upon going into the next game.
One positive to build upon is that when the team got to the free throw line, they shot a robust 84.6%
Another positive from this game was that the team did not commit a lot of turnovers in the game.
They had nine total turnovers which shows that they can take good care of the ball when they have it.
Also, despite not shooting well from the perimeter, Saint Xavier did shoot 50.9% from under the three point line which shows that they can score from mid range and inside with proficiency.
The Cougars next opportunity to rebound from this loss will be at home on Wednesday, January 28, against Holy Cross College at 7 PM.
John Romando
Senior Sports Editor