– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY — Showing the form that makes them one of the top offensive teams in college basketball, the Xavier Musketeers exceeded that baseline lethality in continuing to make amends for last season’s fade down the stretch.
Souley Boum led all scorers with 23 points as No. 16 Xavier opened up a 19-point halftime lead on its way to a convincing 82-60 victory over Seton Hall inside of the Prudential Center on Friday night.
Colby Jones added 19 points for the Musketeers, who came into tonight losing three of their last four games. With many of the same players on the roster, Xavier lost six of seven games to end last season and missed out on the NCAA Tournament. The momentum they built after that slide, winning the 2022 Postseason NIT, carried over into this season in the first year back for Sean Miller as head coach, who has the Musketeers still in contention for a Big East regular season championship.
The Musketeers came into tonight fourth in the nation in overall field goal percentage (.498), and their 51.7 percent shooting in the first half — including making six of 10 from deep — staked Xavier to a 40-21 lead at the half. Overall, Xavier made 10-of-23 from beyond the arc (43.5 percent), ahead of its season clip of .398 from three-point territory, sixth in the nation in that category.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s game, with all photos taken by ALOST photographer Danny Suriel. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 22 pictures in total.
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