“That’s one of the greatest games I’ve been a part of,” were the first words spoken by Xavier coach Sean Miller. “Obviously the energy of the crowd — our fans took advantage of the proximity to Cincinnati."
Most of the 12,546 fans made Xavier feel like they were playing a home game in the battle of 11 seeds. But in the first half and at times in the second half, Texas (19-16) kept the crowd under control. The Longhorns were too big inside and star freshman Tre Johnson (23 points) was too difficult to guard. But Xavier (22-11) had Foster’s hot hand to spark the comeback and ignite the crowd.
“Tonight if he doesn’t rise to the challenge it might not matter how close we were to Cincinnati,” Miller said. “I don’t know if we’d win.”
Foster, a senior guard from Atlanta and Xavier’s fifth-leading scorer, took four 3-point shots in the second half and made them all on his way to a team-high and season-high 22 points.
“This atmosphere and the competition brought out the best in me, and I’m thankful for that,” Foster said.
The crowd had been up and down in the second half, but when Foster’s 3-pointer with 11:05 left cut Texas' lead to 62-57 the crowd was the X factor again.
Xavier finally took the lead, 75-74, with 5:07 left when big man John Hugley, trailing the transition push, further stoked the crowd with a 3-pointer.
Zach Freemantle, the Musketeers' leading scorer beset by foul trouble, put Xavier up for good ay 80-78 with a low-post move with 1:49 left. Freemantle then dunked with 1.8 seconds left to start the victory celebration.
Both teams shot well all night and were over 50% from three for most of the game. Xavier shot 55.2% and made 12 of 25 three-point attempts. Freemantle scored 13 of his 15 in the second half, and Dailyn Swain and Ryan Conwell scored 11 each.
Texas shot 49.1% and made 8 of 17 three-point attempts. Tramon Mark scored 16 points and Kadin Shedrick added 11.
Xavier also turned the game around on defense. After watching Texas score 26 points in the paint in the first half, they held the Longhorns to 10 in the second half and disrupted their flow with more deflections.
“We made a big emphasis at halftime to get in the gaps, get in the paint,” Freemantle said. “They are much more an attack-the-basket type of team. We had to clog the lane on them.”
Xavier will face No. 6 seed Illinois at 9:45 p.m. Friday in Milwaukee.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Mount St. Mary’s 83, American 72
The unexpected — a staple of the NCAA Tournament — gave rise to Mount St. Mary’s and sunk American.
The Mount, as the school of 2,166 students from Emmitsburg, Maryland, is known, benefitted from a career night by Jedy Cordilia. And American, an hour drive from The Mount in the nation’s capital, lost its best player Matt Rogers to injury in the first half.
The Mount thrived on both occurrences to run away from and then hold off American in the second half in a matchup of No. 16 seeds.
The Mountaineers' reward is an appointment with No. 1 seed Duke at 2:50 p.m. Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Lenovo Center is 21 miles from Duke’s campus in Durham.
“It’s just another game,” Mountaineers junior Dola Adebayo said. “It’s basketball. It doesn’t matter how big they are, how they’re ranked. They’ve still got to tie their shoes just like me.”
Cordilia, a senior from The Netherlands, scored 16 points on 8 of 9 shooting in the first half to lead the Mountaineers to a 48-38 lead. He tied his career high with 22 points on 10 of 11 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds.
“We came out with a mentality to just attack and attack and get him in foul trouble,” Cordilia said of Rogers.
Rogers, a graduate student, scored seven points and played only eight minutes before an injury ended his night and career. He spent the second half at the end of the bench with his right knee wrapped and elevated. During timeouts he stood on crutches.
Rogers averaged 17 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Eagles (22-13). He scored 25 points in the Patriot League title game to earn tournament MVP. He is a two-time first-team all-league player and finished as the Eagles' sixth all-time leading scorer with 1,856 points.
While Rogers was on the floor, the score was close. The Mountaineers opened a 36-28 lead, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Geoff Sprouse (18 points) and Elijah Stephens (12 points) cut the Eagles' deficit to 36-34. But the Mountaineers answered with a 12-4 run to take a 48-38 halftime lead.
American fell behind by 19 with 6:35 left in the game but trimmed the Mountaineers' lead to nine three minutes later. But that’s as far as the comeback went.
Mount St. Mary’s coach Donny Lind brought his team to the school’s seventh NCAA Tournament in his first season.
“When we walked out there for the National Anthem, it was a little bit of a ‘Holy, cow’ moment for me,” he said. “Now we get to move on. Like all of us we’ve watched a lot of Duke basketball as kids because they were on TV. Like the guys say, we’ve got to get ready and give them everything we’ve got.”
Cordilia had plenty of help on a night when the Mountaineers (23-12) were engaged in faster-paced game then they are accustomed to in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Cordilia’s partner in the paint Adebayo scored 22 points and guard Dallas Hobbs scored 17. The Mount shot 57.7% and made 9 of 22 3-pointers.
“Those guys are two of the best bigs in the MAAC, two of the best mid-major bigs in the country,” Lind said of Cordilia and Adebayo. “Hopefully we can see them against two of the better bigs in the country on Friday and see where they stack up.”
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