Xavier rebounded from their two-game slide with a 74-68 win over No. 24 UConn on Friday night. The Musketeers were led by 22 points and nine rebounds by junior forward Jack Nunge.
Xavier trailed 10-7 with 12:27 to go in the first half despite shooting just 3-12 from the field. It was a defensive battle throughout much of the first half, with UConn holding a 16-14 lead with 7:52 left in the first half. Sophomore guard Dwon Odom was a bright spot early for Xavier with four points. Xavier took their first lead of the night with 5:15 left in the first half when Nunge buried a three off a UConn turnover. Nunge finished with 9 points in the first half, while senior guard Nate Johnson chipped in 10 points to lead all scorers, including an off-balance three-pointer to beat the buzzer at the end of the half. Xavier took a 34-31 lead into the locker room.
Xavier took their largest lead of the night at 42-34 with 16:37 to go in the second half after junior forward Zach Freemantle scored in the paint. Senior guard Paul Scruggs had his first six points of the game in the first four minutes of the half, and Xavier grew their lead to ten at 47-37 after a tough and-one by Freemantle. Graduate guard R.J. Cole answered down the other end for UConn with a three of his own to cut Xavier’s lead to seven with 13:09 left. Cole hit another three on UConn’s next possession and Xavier’s lead was down to four.
UConn got their deficit down to three before Xavier extended it back to eight on a three by Nunge with a little over ten minutes to play. UConn again trimmed the lead down to four, but Xavier again had an answer and grew their lead back to eight. With UConn trailing by five with 3:49 left, Head Coach Dan Hurley got assessed a technical foul but Xavier could only add two points to their lead. An and-one by Nunge with 2:57 left put Xavier up eight but four straight points by UConn made it a 65-61 game with just over two minutes left.
With UConn trailing by three with 1:12 left, sophomore forward Andre Jackson was ruled out of bounds and then punted the ball into the student section and got a technical. Xavier extended their lead to 70-64, and with 40 seconds left they held a 70-66 lead. UConn made it a three-point game and Scruggs went to the line with 29.7 seconds left and went 1-2 to give Xavier a 72-68 lead. Cole missed a runner down the other end and Nunge got the rebound and was fouled. He made both free throws to clinch the Xavier victory. The Musketeers walked out of Cintas with a much-needed win. They moved to 7-6 in the league and 17-7 overall.
Xavier will look to pick up another win at home against St. John’s on Wednesday.