SPORTS

'Jekyll and Hyde' Xavier loses tight affair at Butler, 83-78

Patrick Brennan
pbrennan@enquirer.com
Xavier guard Myles Davis and head coach Chris Mack react to a foul called in the second half.

INDIANAPOLIS – Xavier men's basketball didn't go quietly.

The Musketeers can at least say that much of Saturday's 83-78 loss at Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse, but not much else.

Xavier again played a solid first half against one of the Big East Conference's elites, but again stumbled mightily in the second half.

A late Xavier surge saw the No. 15 Musketeers (13-4, 3-2 Big East) nearly bail themselves out. They came close to stealing the game in the last minute, but No. 12 Butler (15-3, 4-2 Big East) held on before a sellout crowd of 9,166.

Box score: Butler 83, Xavier 78

Xavier led 31-25 at halftime, but the Bulldogs pulled ahead by a game-high nine points at the 6:59 mark in the second half.

The Musketeers would go on to pull within a point several times in the closing minute of the game. Xavier sophomore guard Edmond Sumner helped closed the gap.

After being held scoreless well into the second half, Sumner scored a game-high 22 points in about 11 minutes. He finished 5 of 9 from the field but made his living at the free-throw line where he hit 12 of 13 attempts.

It wasn't enough. Xavier took possession trailing by three and with three seconds to get off a would-be game-tying shot, but the inbounds pass by junior guard J.P. Macura was stolen.

Head coach Chris Mack said his team put forth a "Jekyll and Hyde" performance.

"I'm happy that we didn't completely melt and cave like we did at Villanova," Mack said. "But there are some things to be unhappy about. The fact that when it kept going back and forth... we couldn't get a stop.

"It ultimately falls on me. I'm the one communicating that message and if it's not happening on the floor, I'm not going to throw the blame on them. I own the team."

Xavier's record in true road games fell to 1-4 on the year. Against ranked teams, the Musketeers are 0-3.

Butler's Kamar Baldwin scored a career and team-best 21 points. Both teams had four players finish in double-figure scoring.

Xavier's Malcolm Bernard tied his career high in both points and rebounds with 10 and eight, respectively.

Where Xavier lost the Butler game: Musketeers disappoint in second half

Another game, another second-half slide, another loss for Xavier. The Musketeers were done in by a wide-ranging series of self-inflicted miscues during the second half.

It wasn't all Xavier, though. Butler also helped themselves.

As Mack correctly forecast during a Friday press conference, the Bulldogs seldom hurt their own cause. They made the most of a tightly-officiated game by sinking 33 of 38 free-throw attempts – an 87 percent average compared to Xavier's 72 percent average in the game.

Butler also committed fewer turnovers. The Bulldogs had nine to Xavier's 16, which was above the Musketeers' already-high per game average of about 14.

Eleven second-half turnovers exacerbated matters for Xavier as Butler scored 17 points off the turnovers in the final 20 minutes – a sum that more than accounted for the final score.

Macura's up-and-down afternoon included a team-high seven turnovers. He finished with 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting and fouled out in the closing seconds.

The Musketeers emerged from halftime on shaky footing, losing what Mack calls the "four minute war" coming out of halftime. They quickly ceded their six-point lead within three minutes and their grip on the game always felt tenuous from that point on.

If felt even more tenuous when, in the midst of the nearly-successful comeback attempt, Indianapolis native Trevon Bluiett fouled out. He finished 2 of 10 from the field en route to 10 points.

Xavier allowed Butler to more than double its scoring output from the first half (25 versus 58 points in the second half).

"It's frustrating to be a Jekyll and Hyde team and give up 25 points in the first half and do none of that in the second half," Mack said.

Through all the miscues, the response Xavier mustered in the closing minutes was an improvement over its Wednesday loss at Villanova, and its December loss at Baylor.

In those games, there was almost no response at all.

But "improvement" didn't equate to victory, which is what Xavier needed to avoid going 0-2 in a stretch of schedule that includes Villanova, Butler and Creighton all in a row.

"I wasn't happy with the way we handled it," Bernard said of Saturday's game. "No one's going to be happy when it ends with a loss."

Edmond Sumner's health

Sumner, whose right shoulder area appeared to be wrapped in kinetic tape during the game, took another apparent injury via a mid-court collision on the botched inbounds play with three seconds left in regulation.

Sumner then was tended to on the end of Xavier's bench and left the bench area before time expired.

"He's in some pain," Mack said of Sumner's status. "I think he'll be fine. I asked (athletic trainer David) Fluker... He's in some pain. That's about all I have."

Sumner was injured Wednesday against Villanova, but practiced this past week at Xavier. He certainly didn't show any signs of discomfort throughout his late-game surge against the Bulldogs.

The road ahead

Xavier returns to Cincinnati and has a quick turnaround before a top-10 ranked Creighton comes to Cintas Center Monday (2 p.m.).

Asked what it would take to get the Musketeers moving in the right direction, Bernard said, "it's going to take for us to regroup."

"We've got to regroup and stick together and stay the course. It's a process. Every day."