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kyxu
02-07-2008, 11:05 PM
Brown’s tip-in leaves Billikens blue in St. Louis, 70-68
By kyxu

Give Kevin Lisch and St. Louis credit. The Billikens trailed by as much as 15 in the second half, thrice cutting Xavier’s lead to six in the second half, before embarking on one of the season’s most memorable rallies in the Atlantic 10.
Xavier seemed to answer each SLU punch with a run of their own, but Kevin Lisch (25 points) single-handedly willed the Billikens (12-10, 3-5) back into the game with clutch three-point shooting and a hoop and foul to tie the game at 68 with 11.1 seconds left.
Enough about that. Thanks to Drew Lavender (13 points, 5 reb), Josh Duncan (15 points), Stanley Burrell (13 points, 4 reb) and Derrick Brown’s heart-stopping, game-winning tip-in just before the buzzer, the Musketeers escaped with their fifth-straight win, and third-straight on the road.
With SLU trailing by three, Lisch drove the lane, laid it in and drew a foul from Burrell, later tying the game with the free throw with around 12 seconds remaining. Off the inbounds, Lavender drove the length of the floor and attempted a lay-up on the left side that didn’t fall. Brown (12 pts, 9 reb) rose up and tipped in Lavender’s miss high off the glass to put Xavier up, 70-68, with just .1 seconds left, sending the Xavier bench into a frenzy. SLU’s baseball pass fell by the wayside, allowing Xavier to skate out of the Scottrade Center with their first win at St. Louis since 1990.
The game began with Xavier firmly in control, as they took an early 12-3 lead off a Duncan basket. But, indicative of the rest of the night, SLU did not bow out, using their own 10-0 run to take a 13-12 lead off a Barry Eberhardt (8 points) three. Xavier then took off on a 21-4 run (see a pattern?) to go up, 33-17. Xavier would head into the intermission up 35-22.
SLU opened the second half with a 7-0 run, before Brown hit the first of his two three-pointers on the evening. Xavier several times regained a double-digit lead, but the Billikens hung with the Muskies before finally making a furious rally in the game’s waning moments.
The Musketeers now move to 16-0 when four or more Xavier players score in double-figures. CJ Anderson rounded-out the double-figure crew for the Musketeers with 11 pts to go with five rebounds, allowing Anderson to eclipse the 1,000-point career mark.
The win gives Xavier sole possession of first place in the Atlantic 10, with second-place St. Joseph’s (15-6, 6-2) up next on Sunday at noon. Xavier has a chance to put decent space between themselves and St. Joseph’s when the two teams meet in Cincinnati.

Muskie
02-08-2008, 12:37 PM
Another excellent write up by KYXU.

Kahns Krazy
02-08-2008, 03:12 PM
Wow, very solid piece. Do you write for the student paper or anything?

Are you looking for feedback at all?

kyxu
02-09-2008, 01:14 PM
Thank you, gentlemen. For the life of me, I could not find a decent picture on-line to go with the story. Maybe Muskie or Svoboda can come up with one.

Kahn's, I appreciate the compliment. I did write some in high school and college, but not much since. And yes, I am open to any feedback. If you notice any problems or quirks in the writing that makes the piece clunky or more difficult to understand, I'm completely open to the criticism. Am used to the plain-vanilla, AP-style writing.

ATL Muskie
02-10-2008, 07:33 AM
Good stuff kyxu. I too did some writing in high school, college and after college, so I can appreciate how challenging, yet rewarding the process can be. I like your writing style. Certainly not "clunky" at all.