Men's Basketball Rolls to Showdown With St. Joe's
DAYTON, Ohio --- Five Musketeers scored in double figures as the Xavier men’s basketball team downed St. Bonaventure 90-64 on Wednesday in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at UD Arena.
The win moves Xavier’s record to 20-10 overall, giving XU its eighth straight 20-win season. The Musketeers advance to play undefeated Saint Joseph’s, the No. 1 team in the country, in Thursday’s quarterfinals at noon. Senior Anthony Myles scored a career high 20 points while pulling down seven rebounds. His classmates Lionel Chalmers and Romain Sato added 14 and 10 points respectively. Chalmers had a team-high five assists while Sato hauled in seven rebounds. Freshman Brandon Cole scored a career high 12 points while also grabbing seven rebounds. Justin Cage added 10 points while Justin Doellman added nine. Xavier shot 54.4 percent (37-68) for the game, compared to 35.4 percent (23-65) for the Bonnies. Eight different Xavier players had at least four rebounds as the Musketeers held a 47-29 edge on the board. Patrick Lottin led the Bonnies with 20 points. The Musketeers connected on six of their first seven field goal attempts to go up 16-5, and had the advantage to 15 at 22-7 in the first seven minutes of the contest. XU led 53-27 at halftime after shooting 64.7 percent (22-34) in the first half. It was Xavier’s highest scoring half of the season. Myles scored 16 points and Chalmers added 14 in the first half alone. XU out-scored St. Bonaventure 8-3 to start the second half and put the game out of reach. Thursday’s quarterfinals will be broadcast on the A-10 Network (Fox Sports Net in Cincinnati).
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