A role reversal doomed the No. 22 Xavier Musketeers in their only loss of the season, against Michigan at the Fort Myers Tip-Off on Wednesday.Normally a team that avoids committing turnovers and pressures its opponent into making them, Xavier (6-1) will try to recapture its early-season winning form when it hosts South Carolina State on Sunday in Cincinnati.Through their six wins, the Musketeers had just 58 turnovers while forcing 82 by their opponents.But against the Wolverines, they lost the turnover battle 19-10 and the game 78-53. The Musketeers committed 14 turnovers in the first half and fell behind 41-30.Xavier head coach Sean Miller credited his team for typically playing an up-tempo style while avoiding mistakes, while also acknowledging that the turnover bug really bit them against the Wolverines.”We lost to a really good team; no shame in that,” Miller said. “We, on top of that, didn’t play well.””And that (avoiding turnovers) is something you (usually) do well? That’s going to be hard to overcome against a quality team like Michigan.”Leading scorer Ryan Conwell (17.6 points per game) gave the Musketeers a boost with 19 points. Zach Freemantle, second on the team at 15.4 ppg, added 14 points and 10 rebounds.Problematically, however, they also contributed to the turnover problem with three apiece.”We didn’t play well enough to win the game,” Miller said. “The game got out of hand. It’s not like our guys quit. Their depth just continued to wear on us.”The Musketeers also get 11 points and a team-high 4.4 assists per game from Dayvion McKnight. The guard had just one turnover against Michigan, but he also made just one of his eight shot attempts.
No. 22 Xavier faces South Carolina St., eyes rebound from lone loss
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