CINCINNATI — Before taking a single question Monday night following a 78-76 loss to Oakland University out of the Horizon League, Sean Miller had a preamble. It lasted five minutes and detailed his observations on what went wrong.
More to the point, there was a message embedded in the address that laid out what he expects of his team going forward after a loss that left his club 4-3 on the season, with a matchup with No. 6 Houston at Cintas Center on the horizon Friday night.
“First of all, Oakland beat us,” Miller began. “This wasn’t about us not being ready to go not having a couple good days leading up to the game, thinking about the next game. We really have worked very hard really since we left us Vegas. We’ve had some good practices and we knew coming into the game that this is going to be a very hard game. It was hard for Illinois. It was hard for Ohio State. It’s been hard for every team that’s played them. You know us being favored, I was a little surprised at that because I look at them and I see a really quality team, obviously quality coach (Greg Kampe) and very difficult style to play against (even) if you’re a veteran group. I think in our case, we are experiencing youthfulness make that style even more problematic.”
Then Miller broke down the game and Xavier’s inability to contain Trey Townsend, who finished with 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting, six rebounds and seven assists with just one turnover.
“Regardless of how we got there, we were up three points going into the last four minutes of the game. The game was a hard-fought even game throughout and when you’re up three at home and you internet last four minutes you want to do things correctly you want to really execute and be the better team if we were we would have had a great chance to win. We were overwhelmed in the last couple of minutes. We missed a block out on the next. Play it was an an one three-point play we missed the second block out a couple minutes later, which led to two more points. So we went for a loose ball, which we had no chance of getting which created a transition opportunity and then we had a chance to close out on number three their best shooter. We didn’t close out we ran by and all he did was shot fake and take the most uncontested shot.”
Xavier coach Sean Miller doesn’t mince words about his team’s performance in final 3 minutes “We were overwhelmed.” pic.twitter.com/puejPtIYOr
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) November 28, 2023
“We haven’t trapped the post. There’s a myriad of different things. You try to build through the summer months through the fall. And then in this schedule in November. It’s the one thing we haven’t implemented. We didn’t have that in our toolbox. And I thought that if he would have had the ability to trap him. I don’t know if we would have won but (Townsend) probably wouldn’t have been 11 for 18. Someone else would have had some open shots or somebody else would have had to do it. We just didn’t have the ability to do that as well as I wish we would have and again, that’s the part when you build this with the new group. There’s a lot of things we do have, one of which is our zone offense. I mean, we played that game with 19 assists and ten turnovers. I thought our offense was plenty good enough to win.
“It wasn’t about that. We just could not stop Townsend and I thought that just generally speaking that last four minutes. We weren’t comfortable enough in that moment to finish the game.”
Trey Townsend may turn out to be one of the better wings in college and have an outside chance of making an NBA roster. On Monday, the Musketeers were a team that had no answer for him defensively.
“That’s one of the best performances I’ve seen against I’ve coached,” Miller raved about Townsend. “We actually guarded him with four different players. Three of them had no chance. I thought Des did the best job. As a coach you always want to look at it and say, ‘Did you give your team the best chance to win? And I can say tonight the answer is no.”
Townsend scored a game-high 28 points, including a game-clinching jumper with 26 seconds left that sealed the stunning win.
Dailyn Swain just missed a desperation three to win it for Xavier when his half-court heave hit the front iron and bounced off.
Townsend added six rebounds and seven assists to his spectacular night while Chris Conway had 15 points for the Golden Grizzlies, who rallied on the road for their fourth win in five games.
Desmond Claude led Xavier with 24 points, six rebounds and four assists while Abou Ousmane had 12 points for the Musketeers, who lost at home for the first time in four home games.
The Golden Grizzlies attacked the Musketeers early and often inside, grabbing leads of 17-9 and 36-30. Oakland dominated Xavier by a 24-12 margin in the paint to take a 43-42 halftime lead.
Claude scored 14 points in the first half and help key a 9-2 run right before halftime to help Xavier trim the lead the Oakland lead to one at the break.
Claude’s jumper in the paint gave Xavier a 50-49 lead with 16:22 left in the second half. But Oakland responded with the next nine points over the next four minutes to claim a 58-50 lead on Townsend’s jump hook in the lane with 12:32 remaining.
Trey Green and Quincy Olivari answered with threes as part of a 8-1 Xavier spurt to close the margin again.
Xavier stayed in the game with strong rebounding, many of which led to extended offensive possessions. The Musketeers outrebounded the Golden Grizzlies, 37-29, and outscored them 22-10 in second-chance scoring.
Swain intercepted a kick-back pass to the top of the key from Chris Conway and raced the length of the court for a layup that put Xavier ahead, 67-66, with 4:54 remaining. Xavier appeared ready to pull away when Abou Ousmane put back a missed shot for a 69-66 lead, bringing the sellout crowd to its feet.
But Townsend converted a layup and free throw to tie the game and Jack Gohlke drained a three with 2:55 left for a 72-69 Oakland lead. Rocket Watts connected on a jumper with 1:26 left to cap a 10-2 run and put Oakland up, 76-71.
