Field Level Media
Nov 28, 2018
Sophomore forward Naji Marshall delivered 17 points, six rebounds and four steals to lead host Xavier to an 82-55 victory over Miami (Ohio) in non-conference action Wednesday night in Cincinnati.
Marshall was 7-of-10 shooting. And defensively, he held the RedHawks' Nike Sibande, who was averaging 18.8 points entering the game, to just eight points on 3-of-14 shooting.
Xavier outscored Miami 28-0 on turnovers, converting on all 14 Miami turnovers. The Musketeers committed just three turnovers.
Tyrique Jones added 13 points and a team-high 13 rebounds for the Musketeers (4-3). Paul Scruggs contributed another 12 points.
Junior forward Bam Bowman scored 14 of his team-high 15 points for the RedHawks (3-4) in the first half. Abdoulaye Harouna added 14 points for Miami.
Xavier shot 54.1 percent while Miami hit just 33.3 percent of its shots.
Xavier expanded its 14-point halftime lead by opening the second half with a 10-1 advantage to take a 52-29 lead. The Musketeers took a 26-point lead at 68-42 on Ryan Welage's 3-pointer with 6:13 left in the second half.
Miami made 12 of 33 shots in the first half while Xavier sank 16 of its 29 shot attempts. Miami had seven turnovers, five more than Xavier, in the half.
The Musketeers used two big spurts to take the 42-28 halftime lead.
Xavier delivered a 9-0 run to expand its lead to 27-17 with 8:16 left in the first half. Welage capped the spurt with a 3-pointer.
The RedHawks answered with six straight points to trim the deficit to 27-23.
Quentin Goodin scored six points to trigger a 13-0 stretch for the Musketeers. That gave Xavier its largest first-half lead at 17 points (40-23)
The RedHawks finally scored to break a nearly four-minute drought to close the deficit to 40-26 on a 3-pointer by Sibande. That shot initially was ruled a two-pointer, but was changed to a 3-pointer during halftime when replays showed Sibande's feet were behind the line.
Harouna scored with a second left before the halftime buzzer.
--Field Level Media