 can win it outright by beating DePaul on Saturday and end Villanova's run of four straight regular season titles.Bluiett will leave Xavier as its second all-time scorer. He made the game's first basket on a driving layup, and finished off the Friars with a dunk and a pair of free throws in the final minute. Quentin Goodin added 18 points, one shy of his career high.The league title was another major step in a record-setting season for Xavier. The Musketeers moved up to No. 3 for the first time this week. Their latest win matched the school record for victories in the regular season. And they got the best of one of only three teams to beat them this season.Providence (18-12, 9-8) won 81-77 on Jan. 6 but couldn't pull off the sweep after getting off to a slow start and getting into foul trouble. Top scorer Rodney Bullock fouled out with 4:42 left after managing only six points. Maliek White led with 15 points.Xavier opened with a 21-8 run, but wasted chances to build on the fast start, missing eight of their first 10 shots from beyond the arc.Providence made 12 of its last 14 shots in the half, cutting the deficit to 40-37. Xavier found its touch to start the second half and made eight of its first 10, rebuilding the lead to 12 points. Providence never got closer than six the rest of the way.BIG PICTUREProvidence: The Friars have a pair of wins over Top 5 teams this season for only the second time in their history, but couldn't get a third. The Musketeers were No. 5 when they beat them in January. They also knocked off No. 3 Villanova 76-71 at Providence on Feb. 14. The Friars are 2-4 against ranked teams this season.Xavier: The Musketeers' last conference title was 2011 in the Atlantic 10, where it won or shared nine regular season titles. When the buzzer sounded, the team gathered around a championship trophy at midcourt as confetti and streamers were shot off from the rafters. They then cut down the net in front of their bench.UP NEXTProvidence: Friars host St. John's on Saturday. They opened Big East play by beating the Red Storm 94-72 on Dec. 28. The Friars will honor seniors Kyron Cartwright, Bullock, Jalen Lindsey and Tom Planek.Xavier: Musketeers play at DePaul on Saturday. They beat the Blue Demons 77-72 at the Cintas Center on Dec. 30, Xavier's seventh straight win in the series.---More college basketball: https://collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/-Top25)
Feb 27, 2018 With a chance to clinch their first Big East Conference title, No. 3 Xavier will welcome Providence to the Cintas Center on Wednesday night.This marks the last home contest for J. P Macura, Trevon Bluiett, and Sean O'Mara -- three seniors who helped orchestrate one of the most successful seasons in program history.Still, the group knows that there is work to be done. Namely, clinch the league title, make a deep run in the conference tournament and advance to the Final Four."It'll be a bittersweet moment because you know in your head it's the last time you're gonna step on that floor in front of those fans, but at the same time we've got a job to do," Bluiett said.Standing in the way of Xavier's historic celebration are the Friars, who snapped the Musketeers' 10-game winning streak with an 81-72 shocker last month in Rhode Island."I'd like to think that they'll be locked in," Xavier coach Chris Mack said. "I don't want them to occupy their minds with hugging their parents and all that stuff beforehand. It's about the game. ... Our guys aren't dumb. They understand what they're playing for and the excitement of it all, but you start focusing on that and not how to defend a ball screen against Kyron Cartwright, you're going to have problems." Cartwright punished Xavier in the first meeting. He scored 19 points, had nine assists and four steals. Rodney Bullock added 17 with six boards and a pair of blocked shots in the Friars' first victory over a ranked team this season."Our kids met the challenge," Providence coach Ed Cooley said. "Life in the Big East, it's a monster every single game." Providence held Bluiett scoreless in the first half of that contest and limited Xavier to 43 percent shooting overall. The Musketeers went 5-for-18 from distance and committed 15 turnovers in the loss, which brought an end to the best start to a season in Xavier history."It certainly wasn't our day," Mack said after the loss. "We know who Providence is. We know what each of their strengths is. But being able to take it away, that's different." While Xavier (25-4, 13-3 Big East) has a chance to clinch a title, the Friars (18-11, 9-7) are still playing for the postseason lives."We know what we're playing for," Providence's Jalen Lindsey said. "We're a desperate team right now trying to get some wins."We're taking it game-by-game. We don't feel as if we're in a lock position right now. We're a desperate team and we know we have to keep winning." Ohio hasn't been a welcoming state for Providence, which has dropped eight straight games there under Cooley -- four in a row to Xavier, one at Cincinnati and three NCAA Tournament games in Columbus and Dayton."They've played well at home and we haven't played well on the road there. But it's a different year, different time," Cooley said. "They're playing for a lot. They can be an overall number one seed (in the NCAA Tournament) and are playing for a Big East Conference championship and obviously for their seniors on Senior Night. So we have a lot going against us."
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