No. 13/14 Xavier Falls on Road at Colorado

Wednesday, December 7

Boulder, Colo.

9 p.m.

Xavier University

7-2

Colorado

7-2

Xavier

Colorado

12.07.16 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Stats (PDF)

RaShid Gaston posts a double-double; Bluiett leads with 27 points

By: Hayley Schletker, Xavier Athletic Communications

BOULDER, Colo. - The No. 13/14 Musketeers used a mid-game run to take a nine-point lead in the second half, but a late surge for the Colorado Buffaloes gave the Musketeers the 68-66 loss on the road at the Coors Event Center. Three Musketeers hit double figures as Xavier moves to 7-2 on the season.

XU STATS

Trevon Bluiett led all scorers with a career-high 27 points, hitting six of 13 from beyond the arc. The six treys match his career high set at Baylor on Saturday.

RaShid Gaston went 7-of-8 from the floor for 14 points, his highest point-total as a Musketeer.

Gaston also had a game-high 11 boards for his second double-double of the season, as the Musketeers out-rebounded the Buffaloes 41-36.

Edmond Sumner finished with 10 points and five assists.

Xavier shot 37.7 percent from the floor but collected 11 of its misses off the offensive boards. Despite owning the 11-6 advantage on the offensive glass Xavier finished nine second-chance points to eight for CU.

MUSKETEERS CLOSE FIRST ON RUN

Both team's struggled offensively in the early minutes, each only hitting five field goals in the first 12 minutes of action. The largest lead of the first 10 minutes for either team was a 12-9 lead for CU at the 12:52 mark as the two teams traded one possession advantages.

The Buffs retook a three-point lead with less than seven minutes remaining when Sumner and Bluiett hit back to back threes to give Xavier it's largest advantage of the first half, 21-18.

CU responded with a run of its own, rattling off seven straight as part of a 10-2 run to take the largest lead of the half for either team, 28-15, with just over three minutes remaining before halftime.

After calling a timeout, Xavier erased the five-point deficit with an 8-0 run, featuring a pair of threes for Bluiett, to take a three-point lead into the break, 31-28. The Musketeers held the Buffs without a point for the final three minutes of the half as they retook the lead.

After struggling from the floor early, shooting less than 25 percent in the first 12 minutes of the half, Xavier finished the half 7-of-15 from the floor, hitting four threes late in the half to take the lead.

Bluiett's 12 points led the Musketeers at the half. Gaston had 10 at the break to go with a team-high nine rebounds as XU held a 24-20 advantage on the boards in the first 20 minutes.

BUFFS STAMPEDE BACK

Xavier extended its run, and its lead, in the opening minutes of the second half, taking an eight-point lead, 36-28, after scoring 13 unanswered points, going back to the final three minutes in the first half.

Xavier led by as many as nine in the first five minutes of the second half, due in part to a pair of threes for Bluiett.

At the 12-minute mark, Xavier held an eight-point lead. Over the next six minutes, Colorado scored 15 straight to retake the lead and push out to a 54-47 advantage with just over six minutes remaining.

The Buffaloes led by seven with 3:38 remaining. Bluiett scored seven of the Musketeers nine points over the next three minutes to cut the lead down to two, 65-63, in the final minute of the game.

A steal in the final seconds of the game gave the Musketeers a chance to close to within one, but a CU block kept the deficit at three and forced the Musketeers to foul. A last second tip in set the final score at 68-66 in favor of the Buffaloes.

UP NEXT

Xavier returns to Cintas Center for its next match-up, hosting another Pac 12 opponent, Utah, on Saturday, Dec. 10. The Musketeers and the Utes face off at 5:30 p.m. ET on FOX.