Area roundup: Trevon Bluiett leads No. 17 Xavier over Eastern Washington
Trevon Bluiett scored 16 points to lead five in double figures and No. 17 Xavier handled Eastern Washington 85-56 in a nonconference game on Tuesday in Cincinnati.
Xavier (10-2) shot 50 percent from the field and hit 11 of 25 3-point attempts. The Musketeers outscored Eastern 14-0 on fast-break points. Xavier senior RaShid Gaston scored four points to eclipse the 1,000 point mark in his career.
A 3-pointer by Felix Von Hofe with just over 11 minutes to play in the first half gave the Eagles (8-4) an 11-point lead. A 19-6 run by Xavier erased that, and Kaiser Gates’ 3-pointer with 3:31 left in the half put the Musketeeers up 30-28 and they never relinquished the lead again.
A 16-2 run to close the first half made it 46-30, and Xavier lengthened its lead in the second half.
Jacob Wiley led Eastern with 16 points, the only Eagles player in double figures. Von Hofe finished with nine. Bogdan Bliznyuk was held to eight points and nine rebounds.
Washington 77, Cal Poly 61: David Crisp scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half, Matisse Thybulle added 15 points and the Huskies (6-5) pulled away in the second half for a win over the Mustangs (5-7) in Seattle.
Washington rolled in the second half thanks to a defensive effort that made up for a sluggish first 30 minutes offensively. The Huskies entered the night averaging nearly 87 points per game but Cal Poly lengthened possessions and forced Washington to work at the offensive end.
But Washington’s defense over the final 20 minutes was possibly the best it’s been all season. The Huskies went on a 12-2 run midway through the second half capped by Crisp’s third 3-pointer of the half to take a 58-48 lead with 7:36 left.
Ridge Shipley led Cal Poly with 14 points, but the Mustangs went more than eight minutes of the second half with just one field goal.
Women’s basketball
Lexi Bando scored 17 points and Oregon survived a late scare to beat Idaho 73-70 in a nonconference matchup in Eugene.
Idaho (4-6) trailed by as many as 18 points in the contest, but came back to have a last-second chance to send the game to overtime, but Geraldine McCorkell’s 3-point attempt missed.
McCorkell and Mikayla Ferenz both finished with 23 points. McCorkell hit 4 of 6 3-point attempts, while Ferenz went 3 of 9 beyond the arc.
The Vandals entered the fourth quarter trailing by 16 points, 60-44, and closed the game’s final 6:06 with a 17-4 run.
Bando went 5 of 8 from the field for Oregon (10-2). Maite Cazorla had 14 points and Justine Hall added 12 points off the bench. The Vandals limited Oregon’s leading scorer Ruthy Hebard to six points on 2-of-10 shooting.
Idaho is back home next Tuesday, Dec. 27 to close the nonconference season. The Vandals host Lewis-Clark State in Memorial Gym.