Chance Westry scored 17 points and added five steals to lead Xavier to a 97-52 season-opening win over Mount St. Mary’s Monday in Cincinnati.
Jovan Milicevic added 14 points and Nikos Chitikoudis had 11 rebounds for the Musketeers (1-0).
Abdou Khadre Kebe led the Mountaineers (0-1) with 13 points and Wilguens Junior Exacte had 12 points and seven rebounds.
Xavier’s defense was dominant throughout, holding Mount St. Mary’s to 29.2% shooting from the floor (19-for-65) and forcing 19 turnovers.
The Musketeers collected 14 steals led by Westry and Tru Washington, who had four to go with his 10 points and seven boards.
After building a 35-point lead at halftime, Xavier went on an early 10-0 run in the second half. When Gabriel Pozzato hit the Musketeers’ 10th 3-pointer with 14:10 left in the game, Xavier enjoyed a 64-24 lead.
The Musketeers dominated the first half, holding the Mountaineers to 16.7% shooting from the field (5-for-30), including 0-for-12 from behind the 3-point line.
Westry scored seven points in the final 1:27 of the half to pace Xavier with nine points as the Musketeers led 51-16 at the break. He also had two steals as the Musketeers collected eight steals and forced 11 Mountaineer turnovers.
Xavier jumped out to a 13-0 lead to start the game. Redd Thompson Jr. finally hit a free throw to get Mount St. Mary’s on the board, but that didn’t slow Xavier much.
The Musketeers went on a 14-0 run and when Mike Nwoko (10 points) scored four straight on a dunk and a layup, Xavier owned a 29-3 lead with 10:31 left.
Exacte ended the run with a layup for the Mountaineers to make it 29-5, but Xavier ran off another 10 straight points to make it a 24-2 stretch and a 39-5 lead with 3:53 to go in the half.
At that point, the Mountaineers were just 2-for-25 from the field.
Westry started his final run with a three-point play to make it 47-12.
Khadre Kebe led the Mountaineers with six points in the first half, despite hitting just one of six shots from the floor. He was 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.