Xavier University Athletics
Xavier University
St. Bonaventure
Xavier Buries St. Bonaventure, 92-66
01.24.07 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2007
Box Score
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. - Drew Lavender came off the bench to pour in a season-high five three-point shots and finish with 15 points as the Xavier men's basketball team rolled over St. Bonaventure, 92-66, on Wednesday night at the Reilly Center. Lavender set a new school record with his spotless 5-for-5 performance from long-range, while Justin Doellman led all scorers with 20 points.
The Musketeers had four players in double-figures and used a sizzling shooting performance from the field as they improved to 14-6, 4-2 in the Atlantic 10. For the game, XU was 34-of-53 for 64.2 percent - its best shooting clip since shooting 60.4 percent (29-48) versus Coppin State early last season. From behind the arc, Xavier drained 11 in 17 attempts for 64.7 percent.
The Bonnies, who were held to just 5-of-18 from three-point range in their own building, fell to 5-14, 2-4. Michael Lee led Bona with 14 points.
Stanley Burrell had 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting and Justin Cage had 11. Johnny Wolf, who started in place of Lavender, finished the game with just two points, but had six assists against no turnovers. Brandon Cole didn't miss a shot in three attempts and scored eight. Jason Love played his best game in a Xavier uniform and was 2-for-2 from the field and scored six points to go with three rebounds.
The crowd of 4,127 was silenced early in the second half as the Musketeers missed just nine field goals tries on 27 attempts in the final 20 minutes. Xavier opened up its largest lead of the game at 68-38, thanks to a 22-5 run that featured two threes from Lavender and seven points from Doellman.
Xavier, which never trailed in the ball game, jumped out a to a quick 8-0 lead, getting four points from Cage. The senior scored the game's first four points on a layup then dunked home a Burrell miss. XU would extend that game-opening run and led by as many as 14 at 19-5, getting a pair of three-pointers from Lavender.
But the Bonnies were in the midst of an 11-0 run midway through the half when Duncan went down with an injury. The spurt, which was keyed by back-to-back threes from Zarryon Fereit and Tyler Relph, put Bona back in the game at 19-16 with 11:44 left.
The Musketeers seized control of the game once again, out-scoring the Bonnies 25-9 over the final 10 minutes of the half to take their largest lead at 17 points, 44-27, into the locker room. Jason Love converted an old-fashioned three-point play in the run and Burrell, who poured in 11 in the first half, closed the stanza with five straight XU points.
The Musketeers return to Cintas Center on Saturday to renew its longest running rivalry, hosting the Dayton Flyers. The national-television game will tip at Noon ET on ESPN2.
