It won’t count for anything when it comes to Xavier’s record, but the Musketeers’ 98-74 win over Dayton on Sunday in the CareSource Charity Classic could serve as a perfect confidence booster.
Last year, Xavier went just 3-9 on the road. In front of a sold-out crowd on Sunday, Xavier demonstrated the toughness of this year’s team in a game that looked like a marquee non-conference matchup against old Atlantic-10 rivals.
Here are five observations from Xavier’s preseason win over the Flyers.
Zach Freemantle, Marcus Foster lead Xavier’s dominant offense against Dayton
Playing his first game in 631 days, Xavier forward Zach Freemantle anchored a Xavier offense that avoided early turnovers to put together a dominant day of work.
Xavier led 46-28 at halftime behind Freemantle, who made two 3-pointers and tied a team-high 15 points. He was far from the only one to shine as Xavier relentlessly kept the pedal down on the offensive end.
Seven other Musketeers joined Freemantle in double figures: Marcus Foster (15), Dante Maddox Jr. (12), Trey Green (12), Dayvion McKnight (11), Ryan Conwell (11), Jerome Hunter (10) and Dailyn Swain (10).
Xavier shot 59.3 percent from the field and knocked down 12 of 26 from downtown and turned a dozen offensive rebounds into 15 second-chance points.
Xavier will play in many difficult terrains this season
Under head coach Anthony Grant for the past seven seasons, Dayton is 92-17 at home. Sunday’s charity game played out like a regular-season affair, and Xavier measured up well in several key areas during a decisive test in mid-October.
They’ll have to prepare for several even more hostile environments, but Sunday was a step in the right direction toward winning on the road in the Big East. Before Xavier can even play in the league, they’ll go on the road against TCU in the Big East-Big 12 battle and against No. 20 UC in the Crosstown Shootout. Xavier opens Big East play at two-time defending national champion UConn.
The Musketeers have options despite the loss of Lassina Traoré
Over the course of the summer and early fall practice, it appeared that Xavier had finally found happiness on the injury front after being decimated by them last season. That was thrown out the window on Oct. 9, when Long Beach State transfer Lassina Traore suffered a season-ending knee injury.
That didn’t stop Miller from finding out what he had on the bench Sunday. Nine different Musketeers played regular minutes in the match. Xavier held a 36-25 advantage in bench points.
Miller went to the bench early and often on Sunday, shuffling lineups to see what he had at the 3-5 spot. There were small ball battles with Foster and Swain starting and other big lineups bringing together John Hugley and Freemantle.
Xavier pulls first punch in dominant opening 20 minutes
With the Faithful Flyers at full strength, ready to cheer on a team that made the NCAA tournament last season, Xavier had the quick answer. The Flyers isolated big man Zed Key for a bucket against Freemantle on the game’s first possession and that would be Dayton’s only lead of the game.
Xavier shot 63% from the field in the first half and was just as effective on the defensive end in holding Dayton to just 12 of 31 from the floor and 1 of 13 from downtown.
Xavier able to withstand the storm
Xavier’s hot start and Dayton’s inability to reach a bucket won’t last forever on Sunday. When Dayton found some momentum on relays in the second half, Xavier had an answer with a fast-paced offense that consistently produced quality looks.
Dayton went on a 9-2 run early in the second half to pull within 15. Xavier scored three points on two of its next three possessions. The Flyers got productive work from 7-foot freshman Amael L’Etang who came off the bench in the final period and Nate Santos scored a team-high 13 points. Dayton cut Xavier’s lead to 72-58 with less than 10 minutes to play, but the Musketeers responded with a 15-5 run to pull away.
This article originally appeared on the Cincinnati Enquirer: Analysis: What we learned from Xavier’s victory over UD in a charity match
