Game Recap: Rhode Island

Xavier was fortunate to win this one 67-65. The amount of turnovers (22) and overall field goal percentage is why I choose the word 'fortunate'. I personally feel this was one of the more poorly played games by X this season. What we did do was rebound and play defense. Rhody averaged in the eighties coming into this game and even with all the turnovers we had they didn't produce enough on the offensive end to win.

CJ Anderson played very strong in the first four minutes of the second half but only played seventeen for the night. He was plagued by foul trouble. Derrick was solid as usual. Tutu had a very nice stat line but the two missed free throws at the end could have been costly. 'Could of' being the key phrase. Brad Redford was a very pedestrian 2-7 tonight but is showing the ability to get 'his' in the flow of the game. Jamel McLean didn't have one of his better outings this evening and received very few minutes. I remain pleased with how Jason Love has developed. That base line drive was very nice in the first half. And how about Dante'? Thirty minutes off the bench and delivers a huge shot from deep. It was the only one he hit all night but #25 seems clutch when you need it. I thought the technical when X was trailing 56-55 by Jimmy Baron Sr. was a key moment in the game. We buried four free throws at that juncture to retake the lead. Another key moment was when Rhody had retaken the lead at 61-60 and their big guy Will Martell clanked two freebies.

Next up for the Muskies is the LaSalle Explorers. They are coming off a five point win at Charlotte on Wednesday night. The Explorers play without a true point guard most of the time and therefore very much like us are suspectible to getting pressed. They have good overall length and I think they are close to being consistently good in the conference. Hopefully by Sunday we can do a better job protecting the 'rock'.