Xavier's David West pressures Purdue's Brett Buscher. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A glass half-empty or half-full debate surely will follow Xavier's 70-66 loss Wednesday at Purdue.

        Every Musketeer but David West struggled to score. With seven seconds left in the game, XU stood 2-of-21 from 3-point range. The team was outrebounded for the first time this season and appeared flat the first 30 minutes.

        Yet XU (3-2) managed an impressive rally to nearly win a road game against a perennial Big Ten power.

        “We're 2-for-21 (on 3s) before our last two 3s go in, and we still have a chance to win,” XU coach Thad Matta said. “That (poor shooting) is not typical of our team.”

        West scored a career-high 31 points, adding 15 rebounds and three blocks, but he had little help. Most notably, Romain Sato shot 2-for-10 and missed all seven 3-point tries, and Lionel Chalmers finished 1-for-10 (1-of-6 on 3s), his only basket coming with two-tenths of a second left in the game.

        “Our guys were getting good looks,” West said. “The shots just weren't falling for us. It's frustrating, because we were like one shot away there.”

        XU shot a season-low 35.2 percent (19-of-54), and the numbers look worse when subtracting West's 9-of-13 night: His teammates shot 10-of-41 for 24.4 percent.

        The Musketeers totaled just eight assists with 16 turnovers.

        Purdue (5-2) didn't fare much better, shooting 39 percent — including 16.7 percent on 3-pointers (3-of-18). But the Boilermakers outrebounded XU 41-34.

        “That's a big stat,” XU senior Kevin Frey said of the rebound totals. “That's a toughness stat.”

        XU trailed by 12 points with 10 minutes left before mounting a furious rally. With Chalmers on the bench, the Musketeers went on a 16-3 run over six minutes to take a 55-54 lead with 3:47 left.

        That's where Matta said XU ran out of gas. Purdue outscored XU 15-5 over the next 3 1/2 minutes.

        “Their depth was a huge key for them,” Matta said. “They ran 10 guys at us. ... We've got two post players (West and Frey) — that's all. We've got just nine (scholarship) guys. They're a big, physical team, and they kind of wore us down.”

        Purdue's Willie Deane was fouled making a 15-foot jumper with 3:26 left, and his subsequent free throw made it 57-55. Sato had a 3-point attempt that would have given XU the lead, but it missed, and Purdue center John Allison scored on a hook shot on the other end.

        XU wouldn't again get within three points until just 40 seconds remained. Deane iced it with four free throws.

        “I thought we had an edge inside,” Purdue coach Gene Keady said. “And we did a better job getting it inside than they did.”

        Allison led Purdue with 20 points, most on lob passes over West and Frey, and Keady said West stopped trying to defend for fear of foul trouble.

        Four of those lob passes to Allison early in the second half helped Purdue bump a 32-30 halftime lead to 51-39. XU made just one of its first 11 shots in the half, that a West stickback.

        At that point, West was 6-of-9, but the rest of the team was a combined 4-of-29 (13.8 percent).

        “We had about our worst 30 minutes of the season,” Matta said. “We got back into it ... but when you come on the road, you've got to make shots. I wouldn't trade the shots we got — they were good looks — but they didn't drop.”

        If you have questions about UC or Xavier basketball, Enquirer beat reporters Neil Schmidt and Michael Perry have the answers. They will debut their weekly college basketball e-mail column Saturday. They can be reached at basketball@enquirer.com. Please include neighborhood or hometown.
       

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