No. 23 Musketeers Use Strong First Half to Top Southern Cal

Friday, November 27

Orlando, Fla.

2:30 p.m.

Xavier University

6-0

University of Southern California

5-1

Xavier

SOUTHERN CAL

No. 23 Musketeers Use Strong First Half to Top Southern Cal

11.27.15 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Xavier advances to AdvoCare Invitational Championship

By: Hayley Schletker, Xavier Athletic Communications

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – An early run helped the No. 23 Musketeers control the game as Xavier topped Southern California to move to 6-0 on the season, the best start for the Musketeers since the 2011-12 season.

Xavier jumped out to a 19-3 lead in the first five minutes of the game after the Musketeers put together a 17-0 run, featuring eight early points from Trevon Bluiett, including a pair of threes, for the first half.

After building the lead, the Musketeers maintained a comfortable advantage by hitting 57.6 percent on field goals, including going 6-of-13 from three, before halftime.

USC would get as close as 12, 21-9, with 13 minutes before the half, before the Musketeers extended the lead again. A balanced scoring effort steadily built the first half advantage, with Xavier's bench chipping in 25 first half points to just four for USC. Each of the 11 XU players who checked in during the first period scored.

Xavier closed the half out-scoring the Trojans 10-4 to take its largest lead of the first half into the locker room, leading 54-27 at the break.

Bluiett's 11 points led the Musketeers in the first half. Jalen Reynolds and James Farr each added six points before the break. Farr grabbed six rebounds as the Musketeers dominated the boards 25-10, grabbing seven offensive rebounds to out-score USC 10-0 on second chance points.

Xavier opened the half on a 7-2 run to take its largest lead of the game at 32, 61-29, with less than three minutes gone from the second half.

The Musketeers held on to a 20 point advantage until a 14-3 run from the Trojans cut the Xavier lead down to 15, 70-55, with less than seven minutes to play. Southern Cal cut the XU lead to 72-59 with just over five minutes to play before a three pointer from Myles Davis and a three-point play from Bluiett extended the lead bacj to 78-59 with three minutes remaining.

USC outscored the Musketeers 15-7 in the final two minutes of the game, but Davis hit 4-of-5 from the free throw line to seal the 87-77 win.

Bluiett led all scorers with 16 points. Edmond Sumner added 13, including eight in the second half. Davis and Farr each finished with 12 points.

Farr's game-high nine rebounds led the Musketeers, as Xavier collected 43 boards to 30 for USC. Xavier grabbed 14 offensive boards for 18 second chance points.

Xavier will now face the winner of Dayton/ Monmouth game, played on Friday at 9:00 p.m., in the AdvoCare Invitational Championship game on Sunday, Nov. 29 at 4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and WatchESPN.