Early hole leads to La Salle rout by Xavier

CINCINNATI - Aaric Murray drove down the floor and set up for a shot, but he couldn't seem to get the ball above his shoulders. As he fumbled with the ball, Tu Holloway, Xavier's leading scorer, quickly poked the ball out of Murray's hands.

Murray and his La Salle teammates, looking shellshocked, hung back in their zone while Holloway fed the ball to teammate Mark Lyons. Lyons emphatically dunked the ball as La Salle coach John Giannini sunk onto the bench.

"Wow," he mouthed.

Twenty-one point Xavier lead, only 8 minutes into the game.

La Salle's shooting woes and Xavier's hot offense were a lethal combination last night as the Explorers continued their slump with a 100-62 loss, their worst of the season.

"It was the most noncompetitive game that I've been a part of since I started playing basketball as a 12-year-old or 13-year-old," Giannini said. "This was about as lopsided as you get. And it's an awful feeling."

La Salle (12-16, 4-9 Atlantic 10) had lost four of its previous five games, and No. 25 Xavier (21-6, 12-1) seemed determined to make up for Saturday's sloppy win against A-10 doormat Fordham. The Musketeers came out with two dunks in the game's first 2 1/2 minutes, and La Salle quickly fell behind, 14-2.

The Explorers looked clumsy and disjointed from the start, taking shots early in the clock and running down the court without attempting rebounds. They didn't make a field goal for 7 minutes, 57 seconds in the first half. In that time, Xavier went on a 27-4 run.

The Musketeers found success by passing the ball, notching 30 assists on 35 field goals. Six Xavier players finished with double-digit scoring, led by Jeff Robinson's 22. Holloway just missed a triple-double, with 12 points, 15 assists and nine rebounds.

La Salle was down, 52-20, at halftime as Xavier had its most prolific first half since 2008. The Musketeers easily worked around the Explorers' defense as Robinson scored 13 and Holloway scored 12 in the first half alone.

"We thought we were prepared, but it's nothing like coming out there and feeling the physicality," said Explorers guard Ruben Guillandeaux, who finished with 16 points. "They were tougher than us today and they basically kicked our butts."

Murray and Jerrell Williams, the Explorers' top scorers, shot 0-of-12 from the field in the first half as La Salle fell behind by as much as 34 before the break. Guillandeaux and freshman Tyreek Duren, who finished with 18, tried to pick up the slack, but their points came far too late for the Explorers to get back in the game.

La Salle's struggles continued after halftime as Xavier extended its lead to 44 early in the second half, and the Explorers' deficit hovered around 40 points for the rest of the game.

"It was a total mismatch from the first play of the game," Giannini said. "It looked like we were in quicksand, and they weren't. I can't explain it, but it happened." *