Men’s team in huddle SXU Athletics
The Saint Xavier University men’s basketball team faced off against No. 15 Olivet Nazarene on Tuesday Nov. 21 at McHie Arena in Bourbonnais, IL in their fifth game of the season.
SXU was defeated by a score of 69-92as they moved to a 1-4 recond on the season, 0-1 in CCAC play.
This was the Cougars’ first CCAC matchup of the season and it did not go how they wanted it to,
Junior guard Sando Hill played 38 minutes on the night. Senior Guard Cedric Johnson had 34 minutes of action along with Junior guard Andre Brandon.
Johnson led the team in scoring on the night, recording 20 points on 9-14 from the field (64.2%). He also finished with four rebounds along with one assist.
With Johnson scoring 20 points, this was the fourth time in five games that he has scored 20 or more points for the Cougars this season. He is averaging 21.6 points to begin the campaign.
Brandon had 15 points and three rebounds and was active on the defensive end by getting three steals. Brandon shot 6-9 from the floor (66.7%).
Hill also had double figures with 11 points. He led the Cougars with four assists and also had three rebounds and collected two steals.
Freshman forward James Stevenson, who had his first start collegiate start had a final statline of eight points,four rebounds, an assist, and a block.
Junior guard Trey Ward offered scoring off the bench as he chipped in with seven points, going 2-2 from behind the arc. He ended his night by adding three assists accompanied by three steals in 30 minutes of play. SXU will need more scoring from the bench as the season goes on.
Both teams were head to head to begin with but the Tigers made a 4-14 run in the last minutes of the first half to give them a 14 point lead. From there it was hard for SXU to recover from the deficit.
Johnson played the full 20 minutes in the first half and finished the half with 13 points on 6-8 shooting. Brandon was right behind him with 10 points and two steals in his 16 minutes of play as SXU were down 47-33 at the half.
SXU had 36 points in the paint and scored 18 points off of the Tiger’s 13 turnovers. The Cougars had six second chance points and 11 on the fast break.
As a team, The Cougars had 48 shot attempts and connected with 27, finishing the night shooting 48.2% from the floor while The Tigers shot 66.7%.
It wasn’t the worst shooting night but it was not enough to pull off a win on the road.
SXU shot 8-18 from behind the three point line, leaving them at 44.4% from downtown, but the Tigers were more efficient, shooting 68.8% from three-point range. The Cougars had some good looks from behind the arc but could not knock more of them down.
The Cougars could have shot better from the free throw line as they shot only 7-13 (53.8%) from the charity stripe.
The Tigers made two more free throws than SXU with the same amount of attempts, leaving them at 69.2% for the evening.
An interesting stat from the game is that the Tigers had 16 more assists than SXU. Olivet Nazarene dished out 27 assists with SXU only having 11. The playmaking and ball movement has to get better for the Cougars. They are not getting many assists on the offensive end, so more ball movement will give The Cougars easier shots.
The Cougars committed 14 fouls on the night against The Tiger’s 12 fouls. Freshman guard Jordan Streeter was in foul trouble with four personal fouls.
Saint Xavier have not been able to defeat The Tiger’s in their last 10 meetings, the last win being in January of 2018.
The Cougars want to get back on track as they are looking to improve their record as the season is still fresh. They currently sit at 10 in the CCAC standings and are looking to make a push to the top with their upcoming games.
In SXU’s next game they will host Judson University in a CCAC matchup at the Shannon Center on Wednesday, Nov.29. Tip-off is scheduled to start at 7:00 pm.
It’s going to be another tough game but SXU hopes to get back in the win column.