Nov. 17, 2006

Final Stats

Cincinnati, Ohio - The Xavier Musketeers used experience at guard and height at forward to surge past the Western Carolina Lady Catamounts, 79-50, Friday night in the opening round of the National City Xavier Invitational at the Cintas Center. WCU was forced into 23 turnovers in the contest and outscored 34-20 in the paint in the defeat.

Western Carolina will face the loser of the Loyola Marymount-Toledo game at 2:00 pm on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm in the tournament consolation game.

Two Lady Catamounts scored in double figures led by a 15 from sophomore guard Lauren Powell and 10 from junior Ashley Pellom. Junior Chevon Keith chipped in nine points and a team-high eight rebounds despite missing the majority of the first half with foul trouble, with senior Lynsie Lamitie scoring a career-best eight.

WCU's leading scorer entering the game, junior Monique Dawson, was limited to three points on 1-of-9 shooting, but did swipe three steals

Western (1-2) jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a Lamitie 3-pointer, but then went cold from the field as Xavier went on a 13-0 run over the next five minutes to take a 10-point, 13-3 lead at the 14:34 mark. During the run, WCU missed six shots and committed four turnovers. The Musketeers built the lead to as many as 13 before Western rallied to slice the deficit to six with five-straight Powell points, 20-14.

Over the final five minutes of the opening half, Xavier managed to stretch its lead to 13 two additional times with the last coming at the one minute mark. But the Lady Cats scored a triple by Dawson and a jumper by Pellom inside the final second to pull to within eight, 36-28, at intermission.

Out of the break, the Musketeers stretched their advantage out to a dozen with Western countering to drop it back to eight, 42-34 at the 17:00 mark on a Powell jumper. But that was as close as the Lady Catamounts could get as the Musketeers continued to inch ahead, pushing into the 20s at the 10:32 mark and then taking their largest lead of game, 29, at the 2:34 mark.

Xavier (2-0) was led by 22 points from senior guard Michele Miller including a 2-of-3 showing from long range. Freshman forward Amber Harris scored 13, with preseason All-Atlantic 10 guard Suntana Granderson scoring 10.

The Musketeers shot 42-percent from the field, including a 47-percent in the second half, while the Lady Catamounts were held under 30-percent at 28.3 for the game.

Western Carolina returns to action at 2:00 pm on Saturday afternoon in tournament play to face the loser of the Toledo - Loyola Marymount game in the consolation match-up. Tomorrow's game will be joined in progress on WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 in Cullowhee following Catamount Sports Network coverage of Catamount football.