Box Score CINCINNATI, Ohio - Playing their eighth game in 17 nights and in front of a national televised audience via Fox Sports 1, the Abilene Christian men's basketball team hung tight with a venerable Xavier program for the better part of 25 minutes before ultimately falling 93-65 before 9,269 fans Monday at the Cintas Center.
Xavier improved to 5-0 with the victory, while the Wildcats fell to 2-6.
Hawkins led all Wildcat scorers with 15 points behind three 3-points, while
Michael Grant had nine and
Austin Cooke contributed eight.
Rebounding, however, proved to be an even tougher task for the Wildcats as they found themselves matched up against 6-10 Matt Stainbrook and 6-9 James Farr who combined for 18 of their team's 45 rebounds. Farr also was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field in finishing with 14 points. Stainbrook was 4-of-4 and came up a point shy of a double-double.
The early moments of tonight's game featured five lead changes with ACU going up 8-6 on one of Hawkins' threes at 16:40 of the first half, but then Xavier took off on its first of several big runs in grabbing a 14-8 lead. Hawkins got the Wildcats' right back though with another trey and
LaDarrien Williams followed with a pair of free throws that made it 14-13.
In response to ACU's comeback attempt, Xavier caught fire once more while keeping the Wildcats without a field goal for the better part of seven minutes and suddenly led by double digits at 27-15.
But over the final seven minutes of the first half, the Wildcats made seven of their last 10 field goals to go into the break down by eight points at 39-31. ACU got its offense rolling with a hard-fought layup by
Alexsander Milosavljevic and a long-range three from Cooke that cut Xavier's lead to 27-20.
ACU would stay within seven-to-10 points of the Musketeers over the final five minutes thanks to buckets from Williams, Grant and Hawkins, and then a second layup from Milosavljevic at the :42 second mark made it a six-point game at 37-31.
But On Xavier's final possession before the break, the Musketeers again followed a missed shot with a tip-in by Stainbrook, who finished the half with seven points and five rebounds.
Twenty-six of Xavier's 39 first-half points were in the paint and 10 came off offensive rebounds. The Muskeeters', however, struggled mightily from the foul stripe in missing 6-of-11 attempts.
The home team eventually found its groove at the charity stripe during the second half, making 8 of their first 11 attempts. Freshman guard Myles Davis also got incredibly hot from 3-point range as he buried three treys within a three-minute span that was part of Xavier's game-changing 15-4 run that lasted from 11:39 to 8:05.
Xavier's lead at the end of that run was 74-49.
Minutes into the second half,
Parker Wentz hit a 3-pointer that got the Wildcats to within five points at 42-37, but the Musketeers immediately countered with consecutive buckets by Justin Martin and Semaj Christon that ignited a five-minute 17-5 run, making the score 59-42.
Christon led all players tonight with 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Davis was second on his team with 15 and Jalen Reynolds banked in seven free throws to finish with 11.
For the game, Xavier shot 57.9 percent from the floor (33-57). ACU made 23 of 53 baskets (43.4 percent), but could only get nine of its 24 3-point attempts to fall (37.5 percent).
The Wildcats' grueling month-long road schedule continues Friday, Nov. 29 vs. West Alabama in Baltimore, Md. ACU will then either face Battle 4 Atlantis Mainland Tournament host Towson or The Citadel on Saturday.
Game times at the SECU Arena are 3 and 1 p.m. ET. Live stats will be provided for each contest.
