No. 4 Seed Xavier Takes On No. 1 Seed Villanova In BIG EAST Semifinals

Friday, March 15

New York City, N.Y.

6:30 p.m.

Xavier University

Villanova

No. 4 Seed Xavier Takes On No. 1 Seed Villanova In BIG EAST Semifinals

03.15.19 | Men's Basketball

Xavier vs. Villanova Game Notes

Musketeers are back in the semifinals for the sixth straight year.

By: Tom Eiser, Xavier Athletic Communications

NEW YORK --- The Xavier University Musketeers, 18-14 overall and the No. 4 seed, take on the Villanova University Wildcats, 23-9 overall and the No. 1 seed, in a Friday semifinal of the BIG EAST Conference Tournament at Madison Square Garden. Xavier has won two straight games and seven of its last eight games.

Xavier has now reached at least the semifinals of the BIG EAST Championship in each of its six tournament appearances. Xavier and VU have met once in BIG EAST Tournament play with the Wildcats defeating XU in the 2015 championship game.

Villanova leads the series 27-6, although the two teams split the home-and-away series this season. Xavier used a 17-0 second-half run to post a 66-54 win over then-No. 17 Villanova on Feb. 24 this season at Cintas Center. Xavier suffered an 85-75 loss at then-No. 22 Villanova on Jan. 18 despite a career-high 21 points with a game-high 12 rebounds from junior Tyrique Jones.

THE MATCHUP

No. 4 Seed Xavier University Musketeers (18-14)
No. 1 Seed Villanova University Wildcats (23-9)
Friday, March 15, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. ET
BIG EAST TOURNAMENT SEMIFINALS
Madison Square Garden (19,786) in New York

TV, RADIO AND LIVE STATS

Television: FS1 with play-by-play from Gus Johnson and analysis from Jim Jackson. Lisa Byington is the reporter.
Radio: 55KRC-AM, including via iHeart Radio and TuneIn, with play-by-play from XU Hall of Famer and former XU standout Joe Sunderman ('79). Analysis will be provided by Xavier Hall of Famer and XU all-time leading scorer Byron Larkin ('88).SiriusXM Radio: Sirius 133/XM 201 (also on SiriusXM app., channel 964.
Live Stats: Media stats at Statbroadcast.com. Fan stats at GoXavier.com.

X FACTORS

• Xavier has reached at least the semifinals in each of its six BIG EAST Tournament appearances. XU reached the championship game in 2015.
• Xavier, 18-14 overall, has won two straight games and seven of its last eight games. No. 4 seed XU defeated No. 5 seed Creighton 63-61 yesterday afternoon.
• Xavier, which tied for third place at 9-9 in the BIG EAST Conference regular season race, earned the No. 4 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament.
• Xavier head coach Travis Steele has been named as a finalist for the Joe B. Hall
National Coach of the Year Award, which is given annually to the nation's top first-year head coach in Division I.
• Xavier has five players averaging in double figures in scoring.
• Xavier sophomore Naji Marshall, Second Team All-BIG EAST selection, leads the team in scoring (12th in the BIG EAST at 14.8 ppg.) and is second in rebounding (ninth in the BIG EAST at 6.7 rpg.) and assists (10th in BIG EAST at 3.3 apg.).
• Xavier graduate transfer Zach Hankins, who led Xavier with 22 points (one shy of his career high) in the win yesterday vs. Creighton, leads the BIG EAST Conference in field goal percentage (.678) and is second in the BIG EAST in blocks (1.6 bpg.).
• Xavier sophomore Paul Scruggs, who is the only Musketeer who has started all 32 games, is XU's second-leading scorer at 12.1 ppg. (20th in the BIG EAST).
• Xavier junior Quentin Goodin, who leads the team in assists (third in BIG EAST at 4.7 apg.), has 433 career assists and is ninth on XU's all-time career assist leader list. He has 131 assists this season in 28 games, his third straight 100+ assist season.
• Xavier junior Tyrique Jones leads XU in rebounding (tied for third in the BIG EAST at 7.7 rpg.) and offensive rebounding (first in the BIG EAST at 3.4 rpg.).
• Xavier played in its fifth straight NCAA Tournament in 2018 and its 12th in 13 years.
• Xavier has graduated 109 straight men's basketball seniors.