(Photo Courtesy of Desmond Fischer of Xavier Newswire)
Year 2 of the Travis Steele era starts with a win. That's good. They were very physical on defense and forced 18 turnovers, that's also good. But, what wasn't good was the teams inability to shoot from 3.... 4/23 to be exact with Paul Scruggs making two of those three point shots. What also wasn't good was that the team was 14/24 from the free throw line.
The game started with Tyrique Jones leading Xavier to be very physical to start the game. Jones was very active rebounding the ball from the jump ending the game with 11 rebounds but the team was dropping the ball into the paint for Jones early to get the offense rolling, and Jones did just that scoring the teams first 6 points.
"He makes the game really, really easy to be honest." Naji Marshall said of Tyrique Jones. "Just dump it to 'Rique and get the bucket. If you miss we can crash but other than that it makes the game really easy." Tyrique ended the game with 17 points.
One of the biggest things that stood out was freshman Dahmir Bishop making his College Basketball regular season debut and making the most of his time on the court. Bishop played 21 minutes scoring 4 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. "I think he played well. I think he had some jitters early on." Head Coach Travis Steele said of his young guard. "He's gotta be ready to shoot the ball, a lot of it is his shot prep. He does some good things, It's great to get him some experience we need Dahmir to grow."
Overall, the Musketeers were really good defensively and still have room for improvement as this season moves along. Up next for Xavier, a Friday night showdown at the Cintas Center with the Siena Saints. Siena won their season opener against American University 96-80.
