By Ben Dickison, Sports Editor

Your Xavier men’s basketball Musketeers are officially “in position to be in position” according to national basketball personality Jon Rothstein.

Following wins over St. John’s, the DePaul Blue Demons and Wednesday night at Cintas Center against the Villanova Wildcats, the Musketeers hosted the 19th-ranked Creighton Bluejays on Saturday at noon.

The Bluejays flocked to a sold out Cintas Center on the wings of back-to-back losses. The Butler Bulldogs left CHI Health Center in Omaha with roadkill in a 99-98 thriller. Immediately following Xavier’s nail — biting win over Villanova, the Jays fell at Providence, as Friars guard and Big East player of the year candidate Devin Carter put on a masterclass in the clutch.

Xavier prevailed in a 56-53 slugfest on Wednesday night. The Musketeers continue to track down the resumé to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.

“It’s February. There’s gonna be some nights when you score 70 or 80 points and win. Sometimes you have to play defense and win. And our defense won us the game tonight,” Big East Player of the Week Quincy Olivari said after the game.

“Defense is what brings fans to the stands. Y’all love gritty, hard working people, and that’s what defense is about,” he continued.

“Q-dini” finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and drew five fouls on his way to a three-for-five performance on free throws.

Freshman forward Dailyn Swain (pictured below) amassed nearly 18 minutes of action off the bench. In that time, he recorded eight points, five rebounds and two assists. Swain also played an instrumental role in holding experienced Villanova forward Tyler Burton to just five points. 

“We needed Dailyn to step up because Gytis was terrible. If Dailyn didn’t play the role he did tonight, we would have been in big trouble tonight,” Head Coach Sean Miller said.

Another key agent in slowing down the production of Burton and star Villanova forward Eric Dixon was senior center Abou Ousmane. The passionate paint-force swatted away five Villanova shots and pulled in a team-high nine rebounds in 30 minutes of action.

Senior point guard Dayvion McKnight added seven assists without a turnover in 37 minutes of floor time.

In a once-in-a-blue moon finish, the Wildcats failed to get a shot in the air in the 18 second possession they had to wrap up the game. With Xavier up 56-53 for the duration of that final possession, Miller was asked if he had considered fouling to prevent a three-point attempt.

Villanova Head Coach Kyle Neptune noted that the plan was to get freshman sharpshooter Brendan Hausen a look to tie the game on the final possession. He neglected to take fire, and the Wildcats took one timeout for the road.

The Musketeers then turned their focus to Creighton.

Bluejay skipper Greg McDermott has been linked to the Ohio State job, according to recent reports. Amid the uncertainty, his team is leading the conference in three point percentage and has the best team assist-to-turnover ratio in the league. 

On Saturday, Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrennertorched Xavier for 28 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. In large part due to his presence, the Bluejays are one of the Big East’s most efficient teams on the defensive end this season and led them to a victory over Xavier’s team that shot 46.5% from beyond the arc. 

At first glance, this statistic may be disconcerting, especially when one sees the Bluejays only converted on seven of 28 three-point attempts. However, the difference lies in the fact that the Creighton man-to-man scheme only allowed for 13 three point attempts by the Musketeers. McKnight and Olivari took five pulls from deep respectively, and Claude added three. 

Xavier shot 22-53 from inside-the-arc, landing them at over a 41% clip. On the other hand, Creighton shot 24-for -36 on two point attempts, recording 24 fast break points and eight dunks, seven by Kalkbrenner.

Schiereman poured in 16 points, despite shooting only two for eight from deep and shooting no free throws. Swain was able to contain dynamic wing Trey Alexander to 10 points and nine rebounds, a testament to Swain’s growth and Alexander’s consistent production. Utah State transfer guard Steven Ashworth added 12 for the Bluejays on five-for-six shooting from the line.

Following the game, Creighton star forward Baylor Schiereman remarked, “Our defense is a catalyst for our offense. I feel like we were able to get behind the defense a little bit… we got some easy layups in transition.”

Xavier opened the game on an 11-4 run, benchmarked by a dunk in the open floor by Quincy Olivari that sent Cintas Center into pandemonium. From then on, the Bluejays controlled the pace.

“What I will not do is allow this loss to change our mentality. We would have had to play at our best to beat this Creighton team, and we didn’t get there today,” Coach Miller said after their loss.

Xavier concludes this season’s series with Seton Hall tonight in Orange, New Jersey. The Pirates, currenly fourth in the Big East, last left Cintas Center with a 74-54 loss back on Dec. 23.