Cincinnati, OH – The Xavier Musketeers used their best offense scoring of the season to push past Western Kentucky 95-64 Saturday. Shooting a solid 57.1 percent, Xavier used a balanced attack with five players scoring in double figures. Western Kentucky stuck around in the first half for a while, but led by Trevon Bluiett’s double-double Xavier was too much for the Hilltoppers to handle.
Bluiett had 21 points and ten rebounds in a very impressive 24 minutes. You could tell he was more relaxed and that rubbed off on his teammates. “We were definitely more happy as opposed to the last time we were here,” Bluiett said. “We knew we kind of dropped the ball a little bit.” He scored in a multiple ways finishing with his third career double-double. He was a big reason why they Xavier out-rebounded WKU 40-30.
Trevon Bluiett
Bluiett had help from James Farr, Jalen Reynolds, Myles Davis, and Edmond Sumner who all scored in double figures. Farr and Davis each had a career high of 18 and 16, respectively. Farr got all of his points in the paint and on free throws. Farr also helped hold the paint down on the defensive side with two blocked shots and forcing so many others.
Davis shot well (5-of-9 overall, 3-of-5 on threes). He also added six assists and set up some great shots for his teammates. Sumner added 12 points while hitting 8-of-10 free throws.
WKU didn’t play well and were led by Justin Johnson’s 15 points and seven rebounds. He played with energy and had three offensive rebounds and showed a nice jumper as well. The Hilltoppers shot only 5-of-22 from long distance. “We had too many guys play out of character,” coach Ray Harper said. “They are better players than what they showed.”
Shooting would have helped WKU a lot, but when Reynolds had his first of two highlight dunks in the second half the game was out of reach. Xavier really has something with their two bigs, Reynolds and Farr, both being so productive. That’s something most teams don’t have.
This article was written by George Kallis, a correspondent and scout for NetScouts Basketball. You can subscribe to our RSS feed from the upper right corner of our home page, follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.
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