On Wednesday, the Saint Xavier men’s basketball team battled the Purdue University of Calumet Peregrines. The Cougars shot the ball very well in this game in what was a good win for the men’s team.
The start of the game was very competitive as both teams traded baskets with each other.This exchange resulted in the Peregrines leading 8-7 with 15:59 left in the first half. At this point, the Cougars’ offense woke up, going on a 20-6 run to take the lead at 27-14, with 10:31 left in the first half.
From here, these teams would once again exchange points with each other. Saint Xavier extended their lead to as high as a 17 point lead during this stretch. Ultimately, the Cougars went into halftime with a 44-29 lead in the quarterfinals of the CCAC men’s tournament.
At the start of the second half, Purdue University of Calumet came out blazing, going on a 12-2 run to close their gap to 46-41 with 15:59 left in the game. After the run, these teams went back to playing a tight, competitive game with the score being 49-44 with 13:24 left in this important quarterfinal.
At this point, Saint Xavier’s offense once again hit its stride, going on a 17-6 run to push their lead to 66-50 with 6:57 left to play. This run was enough for the Cougars to win as the Peregrines only came to within nine points of the home team the rest of the way.
The Cougars won by the final score of 81-68. The Cougars were once again led by senior Jack Krieger as he scored a game high 27 points and collected six rebounds. Freshman Quinn Niego had another good day, scoring 15 points on 4-7 shooting from the field and going 5-5 from the free throw line.
Guard Stanley Moore and forward Tony Core also had good games. Moore scored 13 and had a team high five assists in the game and Core scored 12 points and chipped in defensively, recording two blocks.
The Cougars won this game thanks to their offense. The Cougars’ offense played very well in this one, shooting 56% from the field as well as shooting 53.8% from behind the three point line. Their offense also did not allow Purdue University of Calumet to get many extra chances to score, committing only 10 turnovers in the game.
With the win, the Cougars advanced to the CCAC men’s tournament semifinals. The win also pushed Saint Xavier’s winning streak to six games in a row and their overall record to 20-10 on the season.
On Friday, the Saint Xavier men’s basketball team took on the #1 seed in the CCAC men’s tournament, the Olivet Nazarene University Tigers. The Cougars had a very good first half, but Olivet came out of the halftime break on fire to take this game away from the Cougars and ending their season.
The first half began with both teams competing in a tight, defensive battle. Both teams combined to score only 12 points within the first five minutes of the half and being tied at 6-6 at that point too.
Saint Xavier would get going though, going on a 13-5 run to take the lead at 19-11 with 10:42 left in the first half. Once again, these teams would go back to the defensive grind that took place before the Cougars’ run.
This resulted in just eight total points to be scored and Saint Xavier holding a 23-15 lead with 8:16 left in the first frame. For the second time in this half, the Cougars went on a run, outscoring the Tigers 9-4 to extend their lead to 32-19 with 5:31 left in the first half.
For the rest of the half, Olivet and Saint Xavier found themselves in another exchange of baskets. The half would end with Olivet cutting their deficit to 41-33. The second half was not as kind to the Cougars and their fans as the first half, due to Olivet coming out of the break determined to not be upset by the upstart Cougars.
The Tigers went on a long run, outscoring Saint Xavier 17-5 in just over six minutes to take the lead at 50-46. At this point, Saint Xavier tried to retake the momentum from their opposition, doing all that they could to not let their season end on this day.
They battled back to eventually retake the lead at 59-57 with 9:34 left in the game. But the Cougars could not hold onto it due to a 10-3 run by Olivet to retake the lead at 67-62 with 6:04 left in the game.
The Cougars once again tried to come back, but this time it was to no avail as the Tigers held the Cougars at bay for the rest of the game. This was mostly thanks to some timely free throw shooting down the stretch.
The Cougars ended up losing the game 90-79. This game was the final game in Jack Krieger’s collegiate career. He would score 18 points in the game. Krieger also finishes his fantastic career ranked #7 in program history for most points scored by a player with 1,767 of them.
Guard Larry Motuzis had a good game, finishing with 16 points. Guard Quinn Niego had a well-rounded game in this one, scoring 15 points, collecting a team high eight rebounds, and dishing out a team high five assists.
Guard Stanley Moore also scored in double digits with 12 points. The Cougars were done in by Olivet’s incredible second half shooting stats. In the second half of the game, the Tigers shot a ridiculous 18-21 from the field.
This resulted in a team shooting percentage of 85.7% in the second half. Olivet also made 4-6 three pointers that they attempted resulting in a 66.6% mark from behind the arc. The opposition also shot a robust 20 free throws in the second half and made 17 of them.
To contrast this to the first half, the Tigers only made 45.5% from the field in the first half. They only made 33.3% from behind the arc, and did not even attempt a single free throw in the first half.
With the loss, the men’s season is now over.
Their final record on the season was 20-11.
John Romando
Senior Sports Editor
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