Xavier head coach Richard Pitino, players react to loss to Santa Clara
Xavier trailed by as many as 30 in its 87-68 loss to Santa Clara at Cintas Center Nov. 10.
The Xavier Musketeers suffered their first loss of the season, falling 87-68 to Santa Clara at home.Santa Clara dominated from the start, leading the entire game and by as many as 30 points.The Musketeers were also outperformed in key areas, including being out-rebounded 42-33 and outscored 52-22 in the paint.
Richard Pitino said all offseason that his plan as head coach of the Xavier Musketeers was “gonna take some time.”
Xavier had to scratch-and-claw to the program’s 18th consecutive 2-0 start with narrow wins over Marist and Le Moyne.
Xavier had its biggest test of the young season Nov. 10 against Santa Clara, a program that has won 20-plus games in four consecutive seasons in the West Coast Conference, and showed why this new-look roster is such a work in progress.
Xavier never led in the game and fell 87-68 at Cintas Center to drop to 2-1.
“Everything went wrong,” Pitino said. “There was nothing right. We gotta get back to work in every phase of it. It wasn’t one thing.”
Many of the 9,830 in attendance made their way toward the exits early in the second half when Santa Clara stretched its lead to 21. The Broncos led by as many as 30 in the second half and the majority of Xavier’s student section took off with 10 minutes remaining.
“Very appreciative of the fans. I certainly never want to see them leave like that. They deserve better,” Pitino said.
Xavier’s offense can’t find its footing in loss to Santa Clara
Record-setting snowfall in Greater Cincinnati brought a deep freeze to Xavier’s offense Monday night.
Xavier struggled in half-court sets against a physical Santa Clara defense as quality looks were few and far between.
Xavier made 11 first-half three-pointers in its win over Le Moyne, but the Musketeers couldn’t get a perimeter attempt to fall until the 18:59 mark in the second half.
Xavier shot just 33.9% from the field for the night (5-of-18) from deep) and a 25-of-34 performance at the free-throw line helped Xavier avoid being held to under 50 points for the first time since Dec. 2018.
Leading scorer Malik Messina-Moore, who ignited the offense in the first two contests, did not attempt a shot in 21 minutes of action.
Roddie Anderson III scored a game-high 29 points with 25 in the second half. Tre Carroll had 21 on 7-of-12 shooting.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Carroll said. “We got punked on our home court and lost by double digits.”
Santa Clara takes control from opening tip
Santa Clara raced to a 13-8 lead in the opening four-minutes heading into the first media timeout. Xavier has been outscored in that segment, 31-17, through three games.
“They (Santa Clara) were throwing haymakers for 40 minutes and we weren’t responding,” Pitino said.
The Broncos had four players in double figures. Christian Hammond was 5-of-6 for a game-high 13 points in the first half. He got a floater to fall at the horn to punctuate the Broncos’ 15-2 run to end the first half with a 39-20 advantage.
Santa Clara shot 54.7% from the field and got 18 points from Elijah Mahi and 10 each from Allen Graves, Brenton Knapper and Sash Gavalyugov. The Broncos outscored Xavier in the paint, 52-22.
“We’re gonna have to do this thing the old-fashioned way,” Pitino said. “The only way to do it is not necessarily to talk about it, but just to pour our blood, sweat and tears on the practice court as much as we can.”
Ball security an issue for Xavier against Santa Clara
Through two games, Xavier ranked in the upper half (No. 126) of the country in turnover percentage, according to KenPom.
The Musketeers may have protected the rock against Marist and Le Moyne, but Santa Clara took a commanding first-half lead behind 12 points off nine Xavier turnovers.
Xavier finished with 13 turnovers.
Xavier beaten on the boards for the third straight game
Xavier is 0-3 this season in the battle of the boards. After getting out-glassed by the same margin (33-31) in the first two weeks, Santa Clara traveled cross-country with one of the best rebounding teams in the nation.
Xavier was out-rebounded 42-33.
Santa Clara entered the night ranked No. 1 in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage (second-chance final stats). The Broncos had 16 second-chance points Monday.
On the other end, Xavier big men Anthony Robinson and Pape N’Diaye combined for just one rebound over 33 minutes. Jovan Milicevic led Xavier on the glass with five rebounds.
Xavier Musketeers hit the road
Xavier will now play outside of the friendly confines of Cintas Center for the first time this season when the Musketeers visit Iowa Nov. 14.
The matchup is part of a home-and-home series with the Hawkeyes that will return to Cintas Center next season.
“We’ve got a lot of things to work on,” Anderson said. “We’re gonna come in tomorrow and get ready for Iowa.”
Iowa is led by a first-year head coach, too, as Ben McCollum was named the program’s 23rd head coach in March. Iowa opened its season with comfortable wins over Robert Morris (101-69) and Western Illinois (77-58).