Xavier shrugs off first loss of the season, wallops Washington

CEDAR RAPIDS — Things generally go one of two ways after you lose your first basketball game of the season. Especially when that loss comes in overtime.

Your dauber gets down, you pout, and that affects your next game or next couple of games. Or you get peeved, completely honked off and come out spitting fire.

Cedar Rapids Xavier lost Tuesday night in overtime at Waterloo West. It smashed Cedar Rapids Washington, 74-46, Friday night.

Guess you got your answer about these Saints, huh?

“I thought we had two really good days of practice,” said Xavier Coach Mike Freeman. “Wednesday and Thursday, we came our ready to go. We had a little sickness both of those days ... (But) we responded well. Sometimes when you lose, it makes you come to the reality of what you’re not doing well. I think it helped our group.”

Xavier (4-1) played pressure defense against a youthful Washington team with a pair of freshmen in the starting lineup, and that worked 100 percent. The Warriors turned over the basketball 26 times, allowing Xavier to get out and run and build an immediate big lead.

It was 19-8 Saints after a quarter and 36-15 at halftime. The second half was more of the same.

“That’s key. We’ve told our team that if we defend, we’re pretty quick, and it allows us to get out in transition,” Freeman said. “I thought tonight we created a lot of turnovers, the press let us get out and go ... It starts on the defensive end for us. When we do that, we’re pretty good.”

Smooth, emerging junior guard Zander Murray led Xavier with 19 points, including making a trio of 3-pointers. Six-foot-8 junior center A.J. Evans was a force on the interior with 16 points (including a couple of dunks) and seven rebounds.

“Just push each other, make sure you’re not going to care (too much) about the loss,” Evans said. “Push for the next game. We’re all for the next game. It’s not about the future, just the next game up.”

The next game for Xavier (and everyone else) comes in the new year. The Saints seem to be in a pretty good spot going into the holiday break.

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For Washington, a 3-3 record isn’t too shabby considering three freshmen and a sophomore have started most of the early season. It was freshmen who led the Warriors in scoring here: guard Trae Fields had 17 and center Brian Robertson 15.

The most dynamic of the freshman is 6-4 forward Hal Jackson, and he missed Friday night’s game for what Coach Nate Garner said were personal reasons. He sat in street clothes on the Wash bench during the game.

“Hal’s a good all-around player on the glass, he can shoot it, he can rebound, he provides probably one of our better defenders as well. So, yeah, when he’s not playing, we are definitely a man down,” Garner said. “But, hey, we always encourage the next-man up mentality. Guys have got to be ready to go. That’s just the nature of the business.”

Garner said he anticipates Jackson playing again after break.

“A 3-3 record, I think we’re in a good spot considering our inexperience at the varsity level,” Garner said. “But we’ve got a whole lot of growth to make. These next few practices will be huge for us to turn the corner in the right direction to finish out the season.”

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AT CEDAR RAPIDS WASHINGTON

CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER (74): Kaleb Wilgenbusch 5-9 2-2 12, A.J. Evans 7-14 2-3 16, Lorenzo Pino 1-1 1-2 3, Aiden Miller 4-5 0-0 9, Zander Murray 8-14 0-0 19, Jack Downey 2-5 0-0 5, Carter Hoffmann 1-3 0-4 2, Lee Gamez 1-4 0-0 3, Caleb Loffswold 0-1 0-0 0, Brady O’Donnell 1-4 0-0 2, Sam Leuck 0-0 1-2 1, Mac Driscoll 0-2 0-0 0, Cash Parks 0-0 0-0 0, Dylan Holub 0-0 0-0 0, Owen Hlubek 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Braksiek 1-1 0-0 2, Griffin Brecht 0-1 0-0 0, Asa Tew 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-64 6-13 74.

CEDAR RAPIDS WASHINGTON (46): Trei Crowder 0-2 0-0 0, Will Rahe 0-0 0-0 0, Brian Robertson 7-12 1-4 15, Preston Haefner 1-2 0-0 2, Trae Fields 5-16 4-5 17, Javion Seals 1-2 1-2 4, Chuck Crawley 2-3 2-2 6, John Moore 0-0 0-0 0, Damiyon Ayers 0-0 0-0 0, Zaccai Walters-Poage 0-1 0-0 0, NIck Riley 0-0 0-0 0, Jalen Zieser 0-0 2-2 2, Saidi Juma 0-0 0-0 0, Isaac Hotchkiss 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12-38 10-15 46.

Halftime — Xavier 36, Washington 15. 3-point goals — Xavier 6-14 (Miller 1-1, Murray 3-6, Downey 1-1, Gamez 1-2, Loffswold 0-1, O’Donnell 0-1, Driscoll 0-1, Tew 0-1), Washington 4-12 (Fields 3-9, Seals 1-2, Crawley 0-1). Rebounds — Xavier 39 (Evans 7), Washington 24 (Robertson 5). Total fouls — Xavier 21, Washington 16. Fouled out — None. Turnovers — Xavier 11, Washington 26.

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