Friday's basketball: Detroit Mercy run over by Xavier
Cincinnati — Quentin Goodin wanted to stay in for the final minute and try for a triple-double. His tired legs told him he’d done enough.
Xavier’s point guard scored a career-high 22 points and barely missed out on a triple-double Friday night, leading the depleted Musketeers to a 69-55 victory over Detroit Mercy in the renewal of a series between former Midwestern Collegiate Conference rivals.
Goodin steadied the Musketeers (8-5) and helped to break open a close game. His back-to-back dunks highlighted a 16-3 run midway through the second half that put Xavier ahead by double digits for the first time.
Goodin finished with nine rebounds and nine assists. He got to watch the final minute from the bench after playing the first 39.
“To be honest, I was happy to come out,” Goodin said. “I was tired. I had teammates and coaches telling me I was one rebound, one assist away. I was trying to get it, but I was kind of winded.”
The Musketeers leaned heavily on Goodin with a pair of starters sidelined. Naji Marshall missed practice on Thursday with a sore back. Tyrique Jones – the Musketeers’ top rebounder – hit heads with Zach Hankins during practice on Thursday and wasn’t available, either.
“It was very different not having (them) out there,” Goodin said.
Detroit Mercy (3-9) kept it close before fading in the second half and finishing with its sixth straight loss.
Titans freshman Antoine Davis was limited by foul troubles and finished with 19 points on 8-of-24 shooting. Davis came in averaging 26.6 points per game, second in the nation.
Davis tried to steal a pass and ran into Xavier’s Elias Harden for his third foul with 3:32 left in the first half. Coach Mike Davis smacked the scorer’s table in frustration over the ill-advised foul. The freshman was shaken by the collision and lay on the floor for a few minutes before walking to the end of the bench and sitting there the rest of the half.
Detroit Mercy finished with only 10 assists and 12 turnovers.
“I just told our guys we have to find the shooters,” Mike Davis said. “We went through stretches where we didn’t score. Once we found our shooters, we could play with them.”
The Titans were coming off a 63-61 home loss to Ohio. They trailed Xavier 42-40 with 13 minutes left, and then went into a shooting drought as Xavier pulled away.
The Musketeers gave their bench players a chance to assert themselves with two starters sidelined. Hankins started for Jones and had 12 points and 11 rebounds. His head was fine a day after the collision with Jones.
“I’ve just got a bigger head, I don’t know,” Hankins said. “We were (on the) baseline, he reached in, we hit head-to-head and we both went down and he’s had a little more trouble with it.”
Detroit Mercy and Xavier were in the Midwestern City and the Midwestern Collegiate Conference from 1980-95, but they hadn’t played since 2006. Xavier leads the series 52-43. Detroit Mercy’s last win over Xavier came in the 1994 MCC tournament semifinals, when the Titans upset the top-seeded Musketeers 79-75 in Indianapolis.
The Titans are in the midst of playing 10 Ohio teams during an 11-game span. They hosted Bowling Green and Kent State before losing at Akron, Dayton and Toledo and then at home against Ohio. Following the game at Xavier, they play at Youngstown State and at Cleveland State before hosting Wright State.
Xavier had 16 turnovers – eight by guard Paul Scruggs – that led to 21 points for Detroit Mercy.
“The key for us is ball security,” coach Travis Steele said. “We turn the ball over too much. I thought other than Paul, we were pretty good.”
Detroit Mercy opens Horizon League play at Youngstown State next Saturday.
State women
(At) Michigan 76, Southern 35: Deja Church finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds for her first career double-double as Michigan (9-3) wrapped up its nonconference schedule with a 41-point rout. Hallie Thome added 16 points for the Wolverines, who outrebounded the Jaguars 40-26. Jaden Towner had 10 points for Southern (3-8).
Butler 73, Eastern Michigan 63: Tori Schickel and Michelle Weaver each scored 15 while Whitney Jennings added 13 and Kristen Spolyar 11 for Butler (10-1), which handed the Eagles their second loss in as many days at the West Palm Invitational in West Palm Beach, Fla. Danielle Minott scored 21, including five 3-pointers, and Corrione Cardwell added 13 for Eastern (6-4), which concludes nonconference play on Sunday at home against Northwood.
Western Michigan 69, Florida A&M 50: Jasmyn Walker scored 10 while Leighah-Amori Wool and Kamrin Reed each had nine as Western (5-5) reached the .500 mark with a win at the Hatter Classic in DeLand, Fla. Dy’Manee Royal finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Mya Moye also had 13 ponits for Florida A&M (2-8).
(At) Toledo 77, Detroit Mercy 60: Kaayla McIntyre finished 23 points and Nakiah Black added 18 in her first collegiate start to lead Toledo (7-3). Sophia DiMilia finished with a career-high 14 points, sinking all nine free throws, while Brittney Jackson also had 14 points for the Titans (2-8).
Big Ten
(At) Minnesota 86, North Carolina A&T 67: Jordan Murphy had 30 points and 16 rebounds, and Daniel Oturu added 20 points and 11 boards as the Minnesota Gophers hung on to beat North Carolina A&T .
Dupree McBrayer had 13 points for Minnesota (10-2, 1-1 Big Ten), which has won five of its past six games and overcame a poor shooting night by going inside to Murphy and Oturu.
The Gophers were 4-of-20 from 3-point territory. Minnesota outrebounded the Aggies 49-30 and held a 56-30 edge in points in the paint and used the tactic to overcome an early scare.
Qua Copeland led North Carolina A&T (4-7) with 19 points and Ibrahim Sylla added 11.
(At) Alabama 73, Penn State 64: Donta Hall had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and paced by a huge first-half run and Alabama came away with it third straight victory.
John Petty had 13 points and five rebounds, and Tevin Mack totaled 11 points and four rebounds for the Crimson Tide (8-3).
Thanks in part to five early 3-pointers, Penn State (6-6) took a commanding 23-9 lead, only to see Alabama counter with its best run of the season.
Sparked by graduate student Riley Norris, who missed the start of the season after having a cardiac ablation procedure for an abnormal heart rhythm, the Crimson Tide went on 24-0 run over 7:25.
Down 33-27 at halftime, Penn State had yet to shoot a free throw (Alabama was 3 of 5) and leading scorer Lamar Stevens had been limited to just four points. The junior forward finished with 12 points, while Trent Buttrick topped the Nittany Lions with 13 points.
Oklahoma 76, (at) Northwestern 69, OT: Kristian Doolittle scored three straight key baskets late in overtime, and Oklahoma defeated Northwestern for its seventh straight win.
Doolittle, who finished with a team-leading 14 points, connected on layups 50 seconds apart, then added a close-in jumper with 19 seconds left in overtime to make it 74-69. Miles Reynolds sealed it with layup with three seconds remaining.
Christian James had 12 points and nine rebounds and Rashard Odomes aded 13 points – all in the first half – to help the Sooners (11-1) prevail in a physical nonconference match-up of Power Five schools.
Vic Law led Northwestern with 23 points and eight rebounds. Dererk Pardon had 15 points and seven rebounds, while Ryan Taylor had 14 points as Northwestern (8-4) fell short in its biggest challenge before resuming Big Ten play next month.
Top 25
(At) No. 8 Gonzaga 101, Denver 40: Brandon Clarke and Rui Hachimura each scored 23 points as Gonzaga trouted Denver.
Corey Kispert added 13 points and Zach Norvell Jr. scored 12 for Gonzaga (11-2), which is 13-0 all-time against current members of the Summit League.
Troy Stewart-Miller scored 10 points for undermanned Denver (5-9), which couldn’t handle Gonzaga’s size and speed.
Hachmiura sank all nine of his field goal attempts and Clarke made 10 of 12 as Gonzaga shot 68 percent to overwhelm the Pioneers, who shot just 24.6 percent.
(At) No. 20 Marquette 103, No. 14 Buffalo 85: Markus Howard scored 40 of his 45 points in the second half as Marquette pulled away to hand Buffalo its first loss of the season.
Sam Hauser added 18 points for the Golden Eagles (10-2), who hit seven 3-pointers during a second-half surge that turned a 52-49 deficit into an 85-68 lead.
Howard, just 1-of-7 with one 3-pointer in the first half, finished 12 of 25 from the field. He was 9 of 13 from beyond the arc and 12-of-12 of from the line as Marquette improved to 9-0 at home.
Jeremy Harris had 22 points, Dontay Caruthers scored 20 and CJ Massinburg added 18 for the Bulls (11-1), whose season-opening run was their best since 1930-31.
(At) LSU 75, No. 24 Furman 57: Tremont Waters had 20 points and seven assists, and LSU ended Furman’s dream start to the season.
Waters, who came off the bench for the second straight game, scored eight points over the final six minutes as LSU closed out the game with a 14-4 run.
Skylar Mays scored 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting, Kavell Bigby-Williams had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Naz Reid had nine points and 10 rebounds for the Tigers (9-3).
Andrew Brown scored 15 points to lead the Paladins (12-1), whose season-opening run included road wins over defending national champion Villanova and Loyola-Chicago, which made the Final Four last season.