The Saint Xavier University men’s basketball team has been on an absolute tear lately en route to a 19-4 overall record and the No. 18 ranking in the NAIA Division II poll (as of Jan. 20). SXU has dominated opponents and have won 16 of their last 17 contests with the lone loss coming against No. 7 ranked (NAIA Division I) Westminster College of Salt Lake City (Utah), 73-70, on December 28.
The Cougars have had a tremendous winter break with highlights including winning the annual SXU Midwest Tournament after defeating Robert Morris University (Ill.), Saint Ambrose University (Iowa) and Marian University (Ind.) in the championship game. Saint Xavier also competed in a tournament in Santa Barbara, California, hosted by Westmont College in which the Cougars went 1-1 after falling to Westminster College and defeating William Jessup University (Calif.) in the consolation game of the tournament.
SXU played its most recent game against No. 3 ranked Cardinal Stritch University (Wis.) on Saturday, January 19, in Milwaukee, Wis. Saint Xavier came away with a hard fought 66-62 victory over the Wolves who came into the game with a 20-2 overall record and a perfect 16-0 record in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC).
The Cougars were led by senior point guard Roosevelt Green who scored 22 points and distributed five assists in the game. Junior guard Brad Karp and sophomore guard Jack Krieger chipped in 12 points and 10 points, respectively.
The Wolves were led by senior center Darren Moore who scored 16 points and pulled down a game-best nine rebounds. Junior guard Derek Semenas also scored in double figures for the home team recording 13 points on the afternoon.
SXU battled Trinity Christian College (Ill.) on January 16, at the Shannon Center in Chicago and once again Saint Xavier had to fight right down to the final buzzer as the Cougars came away with an 80-76 victory over the visiting Trolls. The Cougars were led by freshman forward Josh Mawhorr who tallied a game-high 23 points to go along with five rebounds in 32 minutes of action.
Karp had a double-double effort with 18 points and 10 rebounds and Krieger narrowly missed a double-double with 20 points and seven boards. SXU played tremendous defense in the game forcing 21 turnovers by TCC and Saint Xavier made the most of those turnovers scoring 34 points off of miscues by the visiting Trolls.
Trinity Christian was led by junior guard Jake Van Den Berg who recorded 16 points in the game. Sophomore forward Ezekiel Odonker pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds and also chipped in six points on the evening.
“We escaped. Trinity Christian is a good team and they came in here and played us really well. You have to take a conference win; it was the second time playing them so they knew everything we were going to do,” said Karp. “Their record does not show how good they are, they have some shooters and they have great players so we knew that we were going to have to be ready. We did not come out with the right intensity and we let them hang around the whole time and if you want to be a good team, you have to come out and be ready to play all the time.”
Saint Xavier will look to continue its winning ways against Calumet College of Saint Joseph (Ind.) who comes to the Shannon Center in Chicago with a 6-15 overall record and a 3-13 mark in conference play (as of Jan. 20). The game is set to tip-off at 3 p.m.