4:10 p.m. Xavier won it 71-53. Check out tomorrow’s Hatchet and www.gwhatchet.com for more.
3:01 p.m. And just like that Raymond drains a three and Johnny Lee bricks an attempt to respond.
3:00 p.m. Freshman Jabari Edwards puts back a Witherspoon miss in transition to collect his third and fourth collegiate points and cut Xavier’s lead to 58-47 with 3:39 to play.
2:56 p.m. Xavier leads 58-40 with a little over five minutes to play. Diggs seems to be benched for now, having sat out most of the second half and seeing action in only 16 of the game’s 35 minutes thus far. He came in for a brief period a few minutes ago, but was promptly removed after badly missing a three-point attempt.
2:46 p.m. And now the Musketeers are in the double bonus as well. Brown makes both of his attempts. With both teams receiving two shots the rest of the way, the ref’s whistle could play a big part down the stretch.
2:44 p.m. Xavier picks up its 10th foul of the half and the Colonials are now in the double bonus, with Hollis being the first benefactor, draining both attempts. Unfortunately for GW it came after a Dante Jackson trey on the other end, meaning GW trails by 14 with 8:33 to play.
2:40 p.m. The Colonials are showing some signs of life both on the court and the bench, cutting Xavier’s lead to 49-36 just inside the 10-minute mark. After Witherspoon drained a three just now, Noel Wilmore stood up to clap as the rest of the team clapped and cheered as well.
2:23 p.m. I hate to play psychologist, but the Colonials are starting to look flat and frustrated as they trail 47-25 with 14:23 to play. The bench players look somewhat lifeless, not even reacting to sophomore Joseph Katuka making a pair of foul shots. After GW stripped the ball on defense and it went out of bounds, only freshman Matt Allbritton put his hands together in somewhat apathetic approval. It’s not pretty.
2:15 p.m. Not only are the Colonials losing the battle on the boards, but they are literally having rebounds taken away from them. Hollis had one snatched from his hands on the defensive end a few minutes ago that was immediately converted into a Xavier basket, while Diggs just lost an offensive rebound that resulted in more Muskateers points on the other end. Xavier leads 40-20 with 17:31 to play.
2:12 p.m. To start the second half, Hobbs replaces Witherspoon in the lineup with Katuka.
1:54 p.m. The first half is in the books, but it’s probably not a chapter GW will want to read again. The Colonials trail 36-20 at halftime after registering twice as many turnovers (eight) as assists (four) and allowing the Musketeers to make more than half their shots (12 of 23). Seven of those dozen made field goals were from beyond the arc. Xavier has also out-muscled the Colonials on the boards to the tune of a 17 to 8 advantage.
Xavier’s Brad Redford leads all scorers with nine points at the break, with GW’s Damian Hollis sitting second with eight. Hollis has made three of four shots.
1:48 p.m. A breakaway dunk from Brown makes it 36-16 Xavier. Of note on the play was King’s wincing as he ran, as the sophomore held his recovering knee after taking a spill on the previous possession.
1:44 p.m. Sorry for the lack of updates as I fulfilled my photo duties (convergence!) but it’s been more of the same over the last few minutes, with Xavier treading water while holding a strong 32-16 lead. The Colonials just haven’t been able to get much of anything going on offense, initially lacking penetration but now also lacking spark. There’s 3:39 to go in the first half.
1:24 p.m. Another Xavier possession, another three – this time from Dante Jackson. Musketeers lead 18-6 and Hobbs wants to talk things over.
1:21 p.m. Before the game, a little kid was watching Xavier freshman Brad Redford shoot threes and asked him how many he was going to make today. “A million?!” the kid asked, and Redford just smiled and kept shooting. He’s not in seven digits yet, but he has hit two big ones to give the Musketeers a 15-4 lead with less than 12 minutes to go before the break. The last one was setup by a massive Derrick Brown block on a lefty hook attempt by Diggs.
1:17 p.m. After surrendering nine straight points, GW scores again Hollis drives baseline and dunks it left-handed to make it a 9-4 Xavier lead with about 13 minutes left in the half. He also picks up a delay of game warning after hitting the ball away as he made his way to the defensive end.
1:11 p.m. A very fast-paced, albeit relatively slow-scoring, start to the game has Xavier leading 6-2 at the 15:44 mark. Diggs was just whistled for goaltending after slapping Jason Love’s layup attempt off the glass from behind after it had already touched glass. It looked like the shot was going to miss anyway, as Witherspoon had initially contested and altered it. Though down four, the Colonials have looked good on defense thus far. They also appear to have a good amount of energy, although that is yet to translate to much penetration on offense.
1:09 p.m. More than two minutes into the game we have our first points as Diggs gets a steal beyond the three-point line and then throws it down in reverse on a fast break. GW has been aggressive on defense and already forced a few turnovers.
1:06 p.m. The crowd filled in by tip-off. It definitely looks (and sounds) like a sold-out game now. Oh, and your starters: Tony Taylor, Travis King, Wynton Witherspoon, Damian Hollis and Rob Diggs.
12:55 p.m. Xavier’s players just entered through the student section while wearing sunglasses and high-fiving fans. This game is supposedly being sponsored by an eyewear company, so perhaps it was a sponsorship tie-in. Either way it was a pretty cool way to kick things off. Very Bret Hart.
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Good afternoon and welcome to an ambitious but hopefully successful live blog for this afternoon’s date with No. 15/16 Xavier (AP, ESPN/USA Today) at the beautiful Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Musketeers enter the game tied with Dayton for the Atlantic 10 lead at 9-3, but those three losses have all come in their last four games. The trio of defeats have all come on the road, however, as Xavier has not lost at home since falling to Butler on Dec. 23 – coincidentally the last date GW won two games in a row. After soundly defeating St. Bonaventure Thursday night, they’ll look to do that again.
Today’s game is sold out, but the crowd has yet to really fill in with 20 minutes remaining before the opening tip. The student section is fully armed with newspapers, which the students will pretend to read during the visitors’ introductions and then tear up and throw in the air. Something like that.
Xavier leads the all-time series between the teams with a 22-9 mark and has also won 15 of the last 18 meetings. The last time the Colonials beat the Musketeers was Feb. 2, 2006 here at the Cintas Center, when GW was ranked 10th in the nation. Xavier has taken all three meetings since.