Sports
By Ryan Ottiger, Staff Writer
In the long-awaited season opener, Xavier dominated with a 97-52 win over Mount St. Mary’s.
Just minutes into the game, the outcome seemed inevitable — a Musketeer blowout. The game began with back-to-back Jovan Milicevic three-pointers, followed by an alley-oop, posterizing dunk from Mike Nwoko that was featured No. 3 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays of the Night. Not long after, Rolyns Aligbe threw down a posterizing dunk of his own. Cintas Center lost its mind.
Xavier had taken a 29-3 lead only 10 minutes into the game. Minutes later, the lead had ballooned to 34 at 39-5. By halftime, Xavier was leading 51-16.
Dominguez made eight three-pointers for a 3FG% of 25%.
In the second half, the Musketeers had some slow stretches but easily maintained control of the game, securing the 97-52 victory.
The story of this game was, yet again, the depth this group has. Four Musketeers scored in double figures, with four more not far off. Chance Westry found his stride, leading the charge with 17 points and five steals. Head coach Richard Pitino spoke about Westry’s impact after his slow start in the exhibition games.
“Preseason games don’t count. I think it’s hard for everybody to understand that. We made the switch and put him at the two. The beauty of Chance is he did not play well in any of the exhibition games … It’s hard to transfer, but his attitude was phenomenal after every game. Didn’t pout, didn’t mope, knew he had to be better, and had a great week of practice,” Pitino said. “I think he’s a little bit more comfortable at the two now that we had Kalek back. We could kind of put Kalek back at the backup one. So really proud of Chance. It was all attitude. I mean, he’s got a terrific attitude and responded well.”
Milicevic also scored 14 points on highly efficient shooting, while Nwoko and Tru Washington delivered 10 points each. Ruben Dominguez, Filip Borovicanin, Gabriel Pozzato, Aligbe and Kalek House were also key contributors in the win.
The players celebrated with Xavier students after their win.
Pitino has praised the team’s ability to play many players since the preseason, and the same story held true Monday night.
“The depth on our team … it jumps off the page. There’s a lot of good players on this team. We gotta use our depth. We gotta wear teams out with that,” Pitino said.
Dominguez and Nikos Chitikoudis also spoke at the postgame press conference to share their experiences playing at Cintas Center for the first time.
“It was a great environment. That surprised me a lot. I know it’s the first game, but it was great. The whole crowd was jumping at the beginning. I was like kind of, you know, vibing with them. I just loved it,” Dominguez said.
“I knew a little about the Xavier atmosphere, fans and the culture coming to the school. So I was kind of like expecting what I saw today. It was great. It was amazing,” Chitikoudis said.
Now, the Musketeers will look to continue their hot start and turn their attention to Friday against Eastern Michigan University.
