By Staff and wire reports
 Xavier at Massachusetts 7:00 PM ET, February 3, 2010 William D. Mullins Center, Amherst, MA |
Amherst, Mass. — Xavier is opening a three-game road stretch at UMass tonight and will continue at Dayton on Sat., Feb. 6 (ESPN2) and at Florida on Sat., Feb. 13 (ESPN).
Xavier (15-6, 7-1 A-10) will be the fifth team in seven games UMass plays, which is rated in the Top 50 of the RPI (as on Monday). The Musketeers are No. 22. UMass has recently played No. 39 Richmond, No. 15 Temple, No. 26 Baylor and No. 42 Charlotte. UMass will play at No. 11 Rhode Island on Saturday to wrap up the gauntlet of a schedule.
UMass (8-13, 2-5) comes off a 72-58 loss to Charlotte on Saturday at the Mullins Center. Senior Ricky Harris had his highest scoring game since the second game of the season with 25 points. He now has 1,704 career points to stand sixth in career scoring at UMass. Lorenzo Sutton is next on the list with 1,731. • Xavier has won the last four games in the series since UMass had consecutive wins in regular-season games in 2005 and 2006. Last season, the No. 10 Musketeers pulled out a thrilling 82-80 win in Cincinnati. Xavier last came to the Mullins Center ranked No. 23/22 and beat UMass, 77-65 on Jan. 27, 2008.
Xavier owns a 12-8 series advantage over UMass and the Musketeers have won the last four meetings.
Jordan Crawford is scoring 19.2 ppg this season to pace the Musketeers, which is generating 79.8 ppg. Defensively, the club is holding opponenets to 67.7 ppg on 40.3 percent shooting from the field.
Xavier’s lone senior, Jason Love, leads the team in rebounding at 8.7 rpg. (fifth in the Atlantic 10) and blocked shots at 1.9 bpg. (sixth in the A-10). Love has shot 84.6 percent from the field over the last four games while scoring 12.3 ppg.
Xavier sophomore Terrell Holloway is second in the Atlantic 10 Conference and 29th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.49-to-1.00. He leads the A-10 and is 16th in the nation in free-throw percentage at 89.3 percent (92-of-103).
The Minutemen have used a rebounding by committee strategy. Three players average more than five per game. Sean Carter leads the way with 6.4 per game. Terrell Vinson is up to 5.6 boards per game. Hashim Bailey is second with 5.3 per game in just 13.2 minutes per game. Prorated over 40 minutes, Bailey would grab 16.2 boards.
7:00 PM ET, February 3, 2010 William D. Mullins Center, Amherst, MA
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