March 1, 2008

Box Score |  Notes  |  2008 Atlantic 10 Championship Bracket

CINCINNATI - The dynamic duo of Amber Harris and Ta'Shia Phillips each posted double-doubles to lead the Xavier University women's basketball team to a 60-57 victory over Saint Bonaventure on Saturday afternoon in frozen Olean, N.Y.  With the win Xavier concludes its regular season with a 21-8 overall record and an 11-3 mark in Atlantic 10 play.  Saint Bonaventure finishes regular season play at 18-11, 6-8.

 

Xavier will next be in action on Saturday, March 8 when the team travels to Philadelphia for the quarterfinal round of the 2008 Atlantic 10 Championship.  XU, which earned the No. 3 seed, will play either No. 6 and host school Saint Joseph's or No. 11 seeded Saint Louis at 6 p.m.  

 

Harris scored 21 points and snared 11 rebounds while blocking three shots and dishing out four assists.  She was just 5-of-15 from the field but took care of business to the tune of an 11-for-14 performance from the free throw line.  Harris also surpassed the 1,000 point mark in her Xavier career and finished the game with 1,004 career points in just two seasons at XU. 

 

Ta'Shia Phillips turned in her 17^th double-double of the season with a 19-point, 17-rebound performance.  She was 9-of-15 from the floor and nine of her 17 boards came on the offensive glass. 

 

Junior forward Tudy Reed joined her teammates in double-figures with 10 points and also blocked a pair of shots.   

 

XU led by nine points, 49-40, after Harris netted six-straight points but the Bonnies would make one last charge and mounted a 12-2 run over a 3:50 stretch and took their first lead of the game, 52-51, after Dana Mitchell scored on a driving lay-up.  Mitchell scored 10 of the Bonnies' 12 points during the run. 

 

However, Special Jennings connected on a big 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to give Xavier a 54-52 lead it would not relinquish.

 

Harris made four-straight free throws to push the lead to six points, 58-52, with 40-seconds left.  The Bonnies would answer with a furious charge and cut the lead to one point, 58-57, but Jerri Taylor made a couple of clutch free throws with under two seconds remaining to ensure the victory.  

 

XU destroyed SBU on the glass, finishing the game with a 50-to-29 rebounding advantage.  The Musketeers did commit 20 turnovers on the afternoon but the team held Saint Bonaventure to 35.6 percent shooting.

 

After falling behind 28-16 at the break the Bonnies came out for the second half with a purpose and knotted the score up at 36 on the strength of a 20-8 run, which was capped with an Andrea Doneth jumper at the 11:30 mark.  

 

Xavier would answer though and mounted a 13-4 run over the next 4:50 and built a 49-40 lead with 6:40 remaining in regulation.  Harris scored the last six points of that Xavier run in a 1:20 stretch.  

 

Dana Mitchell led the way for the Bonnies with 18 point and eight rebounds.  

 

The Musketeers stormed out of the gate and seized an 8-0 lead just 3:30 into the contest.  The early spurt was keyed by three put backs by Ta'Shia Phillips and a turnaround jumper by Harris.  Phillips concluded the half with 15 points and eight rebounds in 15 minutes of action.    

 

The Bonnies cut the lead two points, 10-8, just 4:10 later but XU out-scored the Bonnies 18-8 over the remainder of the first half and headed into the locker room up 28-16.  The 16 points marked the second-fewest first-half points scored by a Xavier opponent this season.  XU held Saint Joe's to 14 first-half points on January 19.     

 

Xavier held a staggering 30-to-13 advantage on the glass in the first half, including a 21-to-9 edge on the defensive glass.