Xavier falls to Arizona in NCAA tournament Sweet 16
LOS ANGELES - Dee Davis' postseason career started in the Sweet 16 and ended there too, and when asked to sum up his time at Xavier after Thursday's 68-60 West Regional semifinal loss to second-seeded Arizona at Staples Center, the point guard said he had no regrets.
"Obviously you want to be known as a player that plays with heart, who leaves it on the floor, and I think that's what we did for the last few games of our career," Davis said. "I'm proud."
Xavier kept Arizona on its heels for nearly 34 minutes, but a 67-second stretch of turnovers and fouls plus a long bout of cold shooting derailed its bid for the Elite Eight. An Arizona team that struggled to solve the conundrum of Xavier's 1-3-1 zone outscored the Musketeers 15-7 in the last 5:27 to clinch the win.
Arizona (34-3) and former Musketeers coach Sean Miller face top-seeded Wisconsin (34-3) in Saturday's 6:09 p.m. Elite Eight game on the same court.
The real dagger for Xavier was its inability to hit a field goal for an excruciating 7:33. Myles Davis ended the spell with a 3-pointer with 1:30 left but the Musketeers never recovered.
"We just missed some shots," senior Matt Stainbrook said, "and it hurts when you do that because a lot of it comes down to senior leadership and stuff like that. I think me and Dee tried to be closers and tried to lead our team and sometimes it doesn't go the way you want it."
Stainbrook finished with a double-double – 17 points, 10 rebounds – and Dee Davis added 12 points and four assists. Jalen Reynolds scored 12 points off the bench in the team's final game this season. The Musketeers finished 23-14.
Coach Chris Mack said Xavier lost to a team with a very good chance of winning a National Championship. The only thing he wanted, he said, was for people from California to Florida say XU was the tougher team after watching the game.
"Our guys competed their tails off. We gave one of the best teams in the country everything they wanted and more. We couldn't make a couple plays down the stretch," Mack said.
The Musketeers started the game with a surprising designed play – a 3-point attempt by Stainbrook. The 6-foot-10 center isn't usually a long range shooter (as evidenced by his seven perimeter attempts all season) but Mack wanted to take advantage of Arizona's bigs giving major leeway up top.
"I just wanted to rattle Sean a little bit, have Dee drive it, get (Kaleb) Tarczewski deep in the lane and throw out. I just wanted him to turn to his bench and say, 'You believe this center's shooting threes?' And I told Matt, 'If you made one, I want you to shoot a second one,'" Mack said.
Although Stainbrook felt he had a good look and thought the ball was going in, it missed. Xavier later went more than 3:30 without a field goal before Myles Davis shook up the game with two steals, including one that led to a Reynolds basket.
The Wildcats battled their own shooting demons, missing five of six shots and facing a similar 3:36 drought. They briefly forged onward without Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who was injured during a play and taken back to the locker room.
The Musketeers outscored Arizona 6-3 while Hollis-Jefferson was gone. James Farr's reverse lay-up gave Xavier its first lead.
The difference early was Arizona's ability to make 3-pointers, if only four. Xavier started 0-for-7 from beyond the arc but counter-balanced that by out-working the Wildcats inside and making their interior shots immensely difficult.
Stainbrook capitalized on an underneath out-of-bounds play to cement a 28-all halftime score. The Wildcats were denied a basket for the last 3:51, in large part because of the zone.
"We drew it up in the sand halfway through the year because we thought our foot speed was really slow with our bigs, and we won a lot of games with that defense. But a great team adjusts," Mack said.
"In the second half they rebounded it and also drove it a little bit more than we were used to. But we felt like we needed to play it as much as we could to win the game."
Tarczewski narrowed the Wildcats' deficit to two points with 6:55 left. T.J. McConnell forced a turnover out of a timeout, Stainbrook garnered three fouls in a 44-second span and the Wildcats started to pull away by hitting free throws and cleaning the glass.
It was an emotional ending for the seniors, but Stainbrook said Xavier will be back.
"I think we've got some guys on the team who are returning next year and they're in very capable hands," Stainbrook said. "I'd say watch out for Xavier."