The Saint Xavier men’s basketball team played two very close games this week, with mixed results.
The Cougars started the week on Saturday, November 23rd when they played the IU-Northwest RedHawks at the Shannon Center. The Cougars entered the game with a 6-1 record, while the RedHawks entered the game with a 4-2 record. The game kicked off with the RedHawks taking the early lead thanks to seven points from guard Rashad Richardson. However, the Cougars started to fire back thanks to some great offensive play from Joshua Evans, who scored 10 points in the first half. Thanks to the great play from Evans and the rest of the Cougars offense, they had a seven point lead with five minutes left to play.
However, the RedHawks started their comeback, which eventually culminated with a layup from Richardson to put them up by one. Luckily for the Cougars, Mike Shepski drained a three pointer to put the Cougars back up by two before the half ended. The first half ended with the Cougars leading the RedHawks 38-36. The second half started with a fiery comeback from the RedHawks, who shut down the SXU offense. This led to IU-Northwest taking a four point lead with four minutes left to play.
However, thanks to five points from Maurice Chambers, the Cougars were able to take a two point lead with 30 seconds left. IU-Northwest needed a miracle to tie the game and they got one when Rashad Richardson crashed the boards and laid the ball up to send the game to overtime.
Overtime started off close, but the Cougars took control thanks to Joshua Evans, who scored five points in the final minute to give the Cougars a six point lead. That lead held and the Cougars eventually won 94-88. Saint Xavier improved to 7-1 with the win, while IU-Northwest fell to 4-3 with the loss.
Saint Xavier next played on Tuesday, November 26th when they travelled to Davenport, Iowa to play the Saint Ambrose Bees. The Bees entered the game with a 7-1 record. The first half started with Saint Ambrose jumping out a big 11 point lead in the first eight minutes. However, the Cougars started to chip away at Saint Ambrose’s lead thanks to a six point burst from Josh Niego. The Bees did reclaim their big lead before halftime though, thanks mostly to a nine point performance from Michael Williams, with all nine of those points coming from behind the three point line. The first half eventually ended with the Bees winning 40-33.
The second half started with SXU attempting a comeback, which worked and gave them a two point lead. However, the Bees reclaimed the lead shortly thereafter and never looked back. Saint Ambrose eventually won 84-78. Saint Ambrose improved to 8-1 with the win, while the Cougars fell to 7-2 with the loss.
The Cougars play twice next week, first on December 3rd against Olivet Nazarene in Bourbonnais and finally on December 7th against Robert Morris in Arlington Heights.