Dayvion McKnight was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, including 4-for-4 from 3-point range, and finished with 17 points to rally Xavier past visiting IU Indianapolis 94-80 on Friday night in Cincinnati.
Indiana State transfer Ryan Conwell scored a game-high 19 points and Zach Freemantle added 17 for the Musketeers (2-0), who put on a torrid shooting display in the second half.
Xavier blew the game open with red-hot shooting after halftime, draining 17 of its first 18 shots from the field. The Musketeers built their lead to 69-49 on back-to-back threes from McKnight. He added another triple almost two minutes later as the run continued, and it was 89-67 when Freemantle capped the stretch with a dunk with 4:37 to go.
The Jaguars (1-1) were led by Jarvis Walker’s 20 points while Paul Zilinskas added 17 and Alec Millender finished with 12.
IU Indy made life difficult in the first 20 minutes for Xavier, taking an eight-point lead, 25-17, on DeSean Goode’s 3-pointer with 6:39 left in the first half.
Adding to Xavier’s misery was an inability to convert close in to the basket. The Musketeers missed eight of their first nine layup attempts. But following a Zilinskas three-point play with 5:14 remaining, the Musketeers went on a 12-0 run to take the lead for good, reaching 34-28 on Conwell’s three with 1:45 left in the half.
The Jaguars tried to stay close in the second half thanks to 8-of-13 shooting from 3-point range, finishing 14-for-28 from beyond the arc.
Xavier used an 9-0 spurt to build their lead to 50-35 with 16:38 remaining on a Conwell trey. Xavier finished 10-for-18 from beyond the arc and 55.9 percent from the field to pull away from the Jaguars.
–Field Level Media
