After 17 consecutive victories since their back-to-back losses early in the season, the Saint Xavier University men’s basketball team’s string of victories came to and end on Saturday.
The Cougars had the opportunity to avenge their first loss of the season to the No. 1-ranked Cardinal Stritch University Wolves on Saturday but came up short in a 93-84 heartbreaker.
On Nov. 20, the Cougars traveled to Milwaukee and lost 82-74 to the Wolves, who were No. 1 at that time as well.
On Saturday, though, Saint Xavier took a four-point lead into halftime behind 15 first-half points from sophomore forward Josh Mawhorr.
Mawhorr, who wound up fouling out of the game in the second half, was left open behind the three-point arc four times in the first half.
Despite not being known for his three-point shooting, he knocked down three of those four attempts to spark the Cougars.
Because of the foul trouble he got into, Mawhorr would only play 13 minutes in the second half and pick up only four more points.
Mawhorr and the other Cougar post defenders had a tough time guarding the physically imposing, 6-9 center Garret Borgrud, who played limited minutes but came up with 14 points.
Behind a second-half shooting percentage of 60.7%, the Wolves roared back into the game and took the lead with 18:06 left.
Saint Xavier would come close to regaining the lead on a couple of occasions, including being down by just two points with 3:46 left, but they could not quite pull it out.
Saint Xavier’s all-time leading scorer, senior guard Brad Karp, had 12 first-half points and finished the game with 25.
Karp, who had not played the previous game against Holy Cross College because of a foot injury but played 39 minutes against the Wolves, was also the leading Cougar rebounder with nine.
Senior guard Michael Simpson, a former Wolf, rebounded nicely from his dismal 1-of-18 performance the first time the two teams met. He scored 21 points and led the team with eight assists in 38 minutes of play.
Outside of Borgrud, it was the guards who gave Saint Xavier the most trouble on defense.
Freshman Tyler Semenas, who had not played particularly we
ll in the teams’ first meeting, led the Wolves with 26 points and seven rebounds.
Derek Semenas, the senior brother of Tyler, was third on the team with 16 points. He was just behind fellow guard Tony Smit, who racked up 17 points.
The Cougars had prepared for what promised to be a close matchup with Cardinal Stritch by squeaking out a 57-50 win against Holy Cross College last Wednesday.
Playing without Karp, it was the first time this season that the Cougars had not scored at least 68 points in a game.
Irrespective of a 36-36 tie with 12:08 left in the ballgame, Saint Xavier held the lead the entire way through, though never by more than nine points.
The Cougar lead was down to 49-48 with 3:32 left in the game before Holy Cross began to foul. The Cougars then pulled away as a result of strong free throw shooting.
As a team, the Cougars went 15-of-16 (93.8%) from the free-throw line in the second half.
In Karp’s absence, three players were able to score in the double-digits. Simpson was the leading scorer with 16 points and tied for the team lead with four assists.
Junior guard Jack Krieger managed to score 14 points despite going 0-for-5 from three-point range. Mawhorr also eclipsed the double-digit mark with 14 points and had two blocks.
With only six regular season games remaining, the Cougars will look to end the season on a win streak before competing in the CCAC tournament beginning on Feb. 25.
They host Purdue University Calumet at 7 p.m. tonight. The radio broadcast of the game is available on WXAV 88.3 FM and wxav.com, or you can watch the action live on sxucougars.com.
Tim Carroll
Senior Sports Editor