CINCINNATI — Sean Miller can see his high-scoring group of Musketeers starting to take bigger and bigger steps forward.
Tuesday night, facing the overmatched Jackson State Tigers, they took another step in proving to themselves they can defend and rebound.
Zach Freemantle scored a team-high 21 points while Ryan Conwell added 14 to lead the host Xavier Musketeers to a 94-57 rout of the Jackson State Tigers Tuesday night at Cintas Center.
Freemantle led a scorching performance from the field for Xavier, making 4-of-5 from 3-point range and 8-of-11 overall from the field.
Dante Maddox added 16 off the bench while Dailyn Swain chipped in with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds for Xavier (3-0), which has two more games remaining on its five-game, season-opening homestand. The Musketeers had six players score in double figures.
Xavier held Jackson State to 5-of-20 shooting from three-point range, a problem Xavier had to solve coming into Tuesday’s game. IU Indy shot a blazing 16-of-31 from beyond the arc last Friday as the Musketeers still found a way to outgun the Jaguars, 94-80.
But the Xavier head coach wanted to shore that up, and in a hurry, before Wake Forest comes to town this Saturday.
“That was probably our overall best performance,” Miller said. “A number of highlights, Dailyn Swain with 10 defensive rebounds and 10 points. Marcus Foster with eight assists as a forward with only one turnover. And I thought Marcus was very good on defense. Zach and Ryan Conwell, both guys had big nights from three. Ryan really got us started right off the get go with two main threes. Zach was outstanding. Dale didn’t have a rhythm to his game because he was in foul trouble, but again, he finished with six assists and one turnover.
“And then off the bench, it was just great to see John Hugley, Dante Maddox and Trey Green really impact the win. Dante and Trey can really score and shoot it. So 28 assists and 10 turnovers, we’ll take that. And I don’t know if Jackson State is as good of a three point shooting team as we’ve played, but just the fact they went 5-for-20 throughout the game, minus a few breakdowns, but we were better guarding the 3-point shot tonight.”
Jayme Mitchell Jr. had a game-high 26 points and Romelle Mansel added nine points and seven rebounds to lead Jackson State (0-3), which is just three games into a brutal 13-game road trip to open the season.
Continuing his sharp-shooting display from his first two games in a Xavier uniform, Conwell knocked down his first two threes of the night and the Musketeers opened the game draining 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, racing out to a 14-2 lead.
Freemantle was 4-for-5 from long distance, helping the Musketeers build their lead to 33-14 on his fourth triple of the first half with just under seven minutes left in the half.
As red-hot as Xavier was to start the game, Jackson State was ice-cold. The Tigers missed their first seven shots and 10 of their first 11 from the floor.
Jackson State was looking for some momentum just before half when Dorian McMillan stole a pass from Conwell near midcourt. McMillan was going in for a dunk just before the halftime buzzer when John Hugley IV came racing over for a thunderous block that brought the Xavier crowd to its feet and sent the Musketeers to the locker room with a 40-25 lead.
Another cold spell by the Tigers allowed Xavier to expand their lead to 25, 54-29, midway through the second half, as Jackson State missed nine straight shots from the field. Jackson State missed 30 of their first 41 shots, including misfires on 10 of 15 layups.
Perhaps the most impressive number to Miller was the 10,107 on hand at Cintas for an 8:30 p.m. mid-week tip-off. Nights like Tuesday serve as a good reminder to Miller as to why he decided to come back to Xavier.
“It’s not like this everywhere,” Miller explained. “And for this to be a Tuesday night, Jackson State. It’s going to be easier for for our crowd to be maybe more excited about a Wake Forest at noon on a Saturday, then an 8:30 tip off on a school day, Tuesday night here at the beginning of November, against Jackson State. But it felt full to me, and I think it’s remarkable. You know, whether it’s our students who continue to show up and be the heartbeat of the arena, and just our passionate fan base, and we appreciate it, I certainly appreciate it.
“And all you have to do is turn the TV on, and you know that most arenas on a night like tonight would be half full, three-quarters full, and they’re worried about another sport called football. And the next thing you know, they wait for their rivalry after Christmas, and that doesn’t happen here. Basketball is so important. You feel it, the love affair between our fan base, the community, and Xavier. You don’t feel it in the Crosstown Shootout or against Wake Forest. You feel it on a night like tonight, when we knew that we could walk out there and basically be in a half-empty building. And that wasn’t it. Wasn’t they, the opponent that we played tonight, took on our crowd and our team. So a heartfelt thank you to everybody.
“It doesn’t go unnoticed, and it makes such a huge difference in recruiting, coaching, our team, being able to keep the standard around here, where where it should be. So I really appreciate it. And I was actually surprised. I knew you’d have a good crowd. I’ve seen it during the 10 years, 11 years that I’ve been here. But tonight was just a real healthy reminder of what an amazing environment we have in Cintas Center.”
