CINCINNATI — Better late than never.
Freshman Dailyn Swain used a head fake to get to the basket and throw down a two-handed dunk with 30.2 seconds left to lead Xavier (10-8, 4-3) to a 92-91 win over the Georgetown Hoyas Friday night at Cintas Center.
The Musketeers led the game for precisely 81 seconds but it was the play late that mattered most. And it came from Swain, one of the true freshmen who might be signaling a growth spurt for coach Sean Miller’s program.
In 21 minutes off the bench, Swain finished with seven points, six rebounds and five assists, and no turnovers. The Musketeers have been looking for their freshman class to come of age and turn a corner and Friday night, it appeared Swain most certainly did.
“I told Dailyn after the game in our locker room that that was his best game of his young Xavier career,” Miller said. “He impacted tonight’s game in a way that that he hasn’t impacted any game and he’s had some good moments. But tonight, he was one of our best players and he was involved in numerous key plays throughout the game. He’s been working really hard in practice. Before practice, after practice, spending extra time with (assistant coach) Dante Jackson in film.
“I think one of the things we’ve learned about day one is you have to bring out the best, coach them hard, pushing him because he’s so young and talented. I just think that sometimes he doesn’t almost understand the things that he’s capable of doing. And five assists, no turnovers and he made some key defensive plays. And to see him go at the basket and dunk it. There’s so many times early this year he would have been apprehensive but he’s gaining more confidence. In game 18, he’s not a young freshman like he once was.”
Clearly, Swain had done enough defensively as well to give Miller confidence that he could handle a key defensive moment that saved the game. With a 92-91 lead, Miller had decided that Jayden Epps – with a game-high 30 points, wasn’t going to beat them. So he assigned Swain to help on a trap on Epps, forcing Jay Heath to fire up a well-defended layup that was off the mark. Abou Ousmane grabbed the rebound and Xavier had its third straight Big East win.
“I think it was a great call by Coach to get on him,” Swain said. “(Epps) had a great game and I think was a good idea to try to make someone else beat us and we executed it was great.”
Quincy Olivari scored a team-high 27 points and added six rebounds to lead Xavier, which trailed by double-digits in both the first half and the second 20 minutes and looked lethargic and out of sorts for many parts of the game.
“It was definitely a big mountain but once we started honing in on defense and getting 50-50 balls, making small plays and stuff, we were coming up that mountain fast,” Desmond Claude told me.
Jayden Epps added 11 assists for Georgetown (8-10, 1-6).
Dontrez Styles added 14 points and 10 rebounds for Georgetown, which lost its sixth game in seven tries.
Xavier won its fourth straight and 12th in 14 tries against Georgetown. And it was the crowd that voiced its presence late that help carry the Musketeers on a night when it seemed they were making an endless climb up a mountain against the Hoyas.
“I can’t imagine a better home court atmosphere than the one we just experienced.” Xavier coach Sean Miller grateful to the Xavier faithful and their role in a 92-91 win over Georgetown Friday night at Cintas. pic.twitter.com/glycaHwKeP
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 20, 2024
“Just really wanting to thank and tip my hat to our crowd,” Miller said. “I can’t imagine a better home court atmosphere than the one we just experienced. And, you know, you get into mid-January, and college basketball starts to take center stage in conference play. You see the pageantry, and you see good crowds, perhaps more throughout the country, but there’s no crowd that’s any better than the one we just experienced.
“And it was a big reason that we fought to the end. Our players were inspired by how loud it had gotten, students section and everybody. So just really want to thank our crowd and they saw one great game. You don’t you don’t see too many 92-91 games that you win in conference play.”
Early on, Georgetown connected on three of their first four chances from 3-point range to take a 14-5 lead. Xavier, by contrast, missed their first five shots from beyond the arc.
Leading 18-15, the Hoyas opened up a 33-19 advantage on the strength of four consecutive made threes from Heath.
Olivari answered with three first-half threes to help the Musketeers cut the lead down to five, 33-28, capping a 9-0 surge with a deep three from the left side with 6:35 left in the first half.
Epps had a big first half for Georgetown, scoring nine points while dishing out seven assists to help the Hoyas to a 43-38 halftime lead.
Georgetown maintained a solid grip on the game early in the second half, using a 10-3 run to take a 56-44 lead on a Dontrez Styles jumper with 16:42 left, prompting a timeout from Xavier coach Sean Miller.
Xavier, which has missed five straight shots, came out of the timeout scoring the next six points.
Trailing 64-56, the Musketeers finally caught fire and went on a 13-2 run, taking their first lead of the game, 69-66, on a Trey Green three with 9:02 remaining.
Xavier Sean Miller called a timeout with 7:28 left when Wayne Bristol Jr. grabbed an offensive rebound and converted a layup to give Georgetown the lead again, 73-71.
Next up are the Creighton Blue Jays Tuesday night in Omaha.
Ed Cooley gets serious. No more “Here comes Georgetown. No. Georgetown’s coming!” pic.twitter.com/KwNhJcE4kl
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 20, 2024
