March 20, 2009

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BOISE, Idaho - Four Musketeers reached doubles figures as the No. 4-seeded Xavier men's basketball team defeated No. 13 seed Portland State, 77-59, in the First Round of the 2009 NCAA Basketball Championship. Sophomore Danté Jackson fueled the Musketeers' first-half surge, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the first period.

Senior C.J. Anderson was XU's catalyst in the second half, scoring 10 of his 14 points in the final 20 minutes. Junior Derrick Brown also poured in 13 points on 6-of-10 from the field, and senior B.J. Raymond added 13 of his own, hitting five of 11 shots, including three three-pointers.

The Musketeers dominated the boards, outrebounding the Vikings 34-21, led by junior Jason Love's game-high eight rebounds, including three offensive boards. Raymond and sophomore Jamel McLean aided the team's effort on the glass, pulling down six rebounds each. McLean pulled down four of the squad's 10 offensive rebounds.

While the Vikings came into the game with the more highly-touted three-point game, the Musketeers matched PSU's efforts from long distance as both teams hit eight three-pointers. In fact, XU hit a better percentage from long range, hitting 42.1 percent compared to the Vikings' 38.1 mark. Overall, the Musketeers hit a blistering 53.7 percent from the field.

After allowing PSU to hit 56.5 percent of its shots in the first half, the XU defense clamped down in the second stanza as the Vikings hit just nine of its 23 attempts from the field. Jamie Jones led PSU with 16 points, while Andre Murray and Jeremiah Dominguez added 14 and 13 points, respectively.

XU controlled the game over the first seven minutes, building a nine-point lead when Holloway pulled up for a jumper in the lane that put the Musketeers in front 19-10. PSU responded with a 15-5 run, however, taking a 25-24 lead when Andre Murray hit a three in transition with just under eight minutes remaining in the half.

The lead was short-lived, however, thanks to a spinning floater by Brown that gave the lead back to XU on its ensuing possession. That sparked a 16-4 rally by the Musketeers, culminating with a conventional three-point play from McLean with two and a half minutes left in the first period to give XU a 40-29 advantage.

Jackson led the charge for the Musketeers in the first half, netting 11 points over the first 20 minutes. He hit three shots from behind the three-point arc in the first period, including a trey with just over four minutes remaining that gave XU its first double-digit lead of the game.

Coming out of the halftime break, Raymond hit a three-pointer on XU's first possession of the second half to restore the double-digit lead, 45-35. Just under three minutes later, Brown ignited the crowd and pushed the advantage to 12 at 49-37 with a thunderous dunk off an alley-oop pass from Jackson.

Coming out of the under-16 timeout, PSU cut the deficit to single digits, 49-41, but freshman Terrell Holloway answered with a pair of free throws to restore the double-digit margin. Anderson helped spark a 17-4 rally by the Musketeers by scoring eight of the team's next 10 points and Raymond followed with a three-pointer to push the margin over 20 points, 66-45, with over eight minutes to play.

The Vikings pulled within 16 points at one point in the final minutes, but could not whittle the lead down any further as the Musketeers advanced to the next round.

XU awaits the winner of No. 5 seed Florida State and No. 12 seed Wisconsin. The Musketeers will play their second round game on Sunday.