Souley Boum dropped a season-high 33 points, Colby Jones scored a career-high 29 and No. 19 Xavier knocked out host No. 20 Providence 94-89 on Wednesday night.
The Musketeers (22-8, 14-5 Big East) completed the sweep of the season series, handed Providence its first home loss all year and secured the No. 2 seed in next week’s Big East tournament.
Xavier led by as many as 22 points in the first half, saw the advantage cut to two early in the second and managed to keep Providence at bay by shooting 18-for-25 (72 percent) from the floor after halftime.
Jones went a remarkable 10-for-11 (3-for-3 from deep) from the field and tallied nine rebounds and four assists. Desmond Claude added 12 points for the Musketeers.
Ed Croswell and Bryce Hopkins scored 17 points apiece to lead five players in double figures for Providence (21-9, 13-6), with Croswell adding 13 rebounds. Noah Locke and Devin Carter each scored 15 points and Jared Bynum had 14.
Both teams shot 50 percent from beyond the 3-point arc in the high-scoring affair, and the Friars had a 26-16 scoring advantage at the foul line, but they could not stymie Xavier’s highly-efficient offense.
With Providence biting at Xavier’s heels, Boum drilled open 3-pointers 90 seconds apart, making it 66-58 with 11:21 left to play and 69-62 at 9:51.
Jones’ final 3-pointer of the game pushed it to 84-74, but Hopkins answered with one of his own with 4:13 to go.
Even down 12 with 1:31 to play, Providence threw one more punch. Carter made a trey and Croswell converted a three-point play to make it 92-86. But Jack Nunge swatted the Friars’ next attempt at the basket, Xavier recovered and the game was iced.
Xavier had its first double-digit lead at 16-6 just six minutes into the game. It became 26-10 after Boum sank a 3-pointer and 29-13 when he converted a three-point play.
Jones gave Xavier its largest lead, 40-18, with his triple with 6:01 left in the first half.
Corey Floyd Jr. hit consecutive 3-pointers to fuel an 11-0 Providence run late in the half, and the Musketeers’ lead was trimmed to 45-36 by intermission. Boum had 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting in the half.
The Friars came charging back after halftime. Hopkins and Locke knocked down treys on back-to-back possessions to cut the deficit to 55-53 with 15:18 to play.
–Field Level Media
