MADISON, Wis. — The snapshot of Maurice McAfee's season came early in the second half Saturday. The Xavier senior guard missed a 3-pointer, and on Wisconsin's ensuing trip upcourt, he couldn't fight through a screen in time to defend Kirk Penney, who nailed a three.

        McAfee is playing out of position, and his game is out of sorts. Though he led XU with 12 points Saturday, five of those came in the last two minutes.

        The lifelong point guard is in a shooting slump and having trouble guarding bigger players at small forward.

        “I'm not making shots that I normally have made, but I'm going to get out of it,” McAfee said. “I'm not going to sulk about it. I'm just going to work harder and try to get it done.”

        McAfee is averaging 7.8 points, down from his team-high 15.3 average last season. He is shooting .378 (down from .408 last season), including .211 from 3-point range (down from .394). And after leading the Atlantic 10 in free-throw shooting last year at .824, he's just .466 this season (7 of 15).

        “I think today what hurt him was the early foul trouble (three fouls in 12 minutes),” XU assistant Jeff Battle said. “Then we got behind, and he tried to make some things happen in the second half.”

        When Lloyd Price returns, McAfee likely will shift back to point guard, with Lionel Chalmers coming off the bench. That could help McAfee's comfort level.

        SLOW GO: XU's game plan was to speed the Badgers up, but 28 fouls called in the first half slowed the game to a crawl.

        And 69 seconds into the second half, there were four different Musketeers with three fouls, so they had to tone down their normally aggressive press.

        BIG DEBUT: Brad Soderberg drew raves in his coaching debut. The former Wisconsin assistant became interim head coach when Dick Bennett retired Wednesday, and the players praised him for his sideline poise.

        “I made a promise I would keep calm and focused and not let my emotions get to me,” Soderberg said.

        UP NEXT: XU plays host to San Francisco at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. It is the only remaining home game not sold out; fewer than 600 tickets remain.

Xavier Stories

Wisconsin 61, Xavier 46 McAfee struggles at small forward WXIX blames satellite Xavier women 89, Wis.-Green Bay 74

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