Lexington, Ky. – The raucous Xavier crowd that drove 90 miles from Cincinnati to watch its Musketeers play Brigham Young here Thursday night was well behaved. They booed only twice.
Once was when Ohio State coach Thad Matta took a seat at press row to scout, and once when he appeared on the giant TV screen. That’s nothing. Wait until he gets a load of the Xavier faithful he left for Ohio State in 2004 when he plays his former team in the second round of the NCAA Tournament’s South Regional at 11:10 a.m. MDT on Saturday.
Xavier, the scrappy mid-major that has been a steppingstone for coaches dating to Bob Staack in the 1980s, made that possible by nipping eighth-seeded Brigham Young 79-77.
The Xavier-Ohio State story lines overshadowed the BYU score about two nanoseconds after Drew Lavender scored nine points in the final 3:50 to win it. Xavier coach Sean Miller assisted Matta at Xavier and succeeded him, and they shared an office as fledgling assistants at Miami of Ohio and remain close friends. They have shared team secrets throughout the season.
Lavender is from Columbus and was recruited by Ohio State. He played on the same Brookhaven High team as Buckeyes guard Ron Lewis.
“It was obviously a strange feeling when we saw the brackets,” Miller said. “We tried to focus on beating a really good BYU team, and that was really easy to do. This day would never have come if we had lost. Now that that time has gone, and there’s the reality that we play each other, it’s really amazing.”
The source of the booing comes from 2004 when Matta led Xavier to within a three-point loss to Duke from the Final Four. Then he left for big coin in Columbus.
As long as Lavender has the ball, ninth-seeded Xavier (25-8) will remain hot. BYU (25-9) wasn’t overmatched by Xavier’s quickness – until the end. With the game tied at 68 with less than four minutes left, Lavender took over. The diminutive point guard, listed generously at 5-feet-7, hit a 3-pointer then drove around Austin Ainge twice for baskets and a 75-73 lead.
“(Coach) told me to pick it up,” said Lavender, a transfer from Oklahoma. “I wasn’t myself in the first half.”
Lavender was only 1-for-6 in the first 20 minutes, and the Musketeers couldn’t stop the 3-pointer as BYU’s Mike Rose came off the bench to hit 5-of-6 3s for 15 points.
Down 77-75 after Xavier backup Josh Duncan’s lone basket with 34 seconds left, Ainge missed a wide-open 12-footer and Trent Plaisted couldn’t convert the rebound. Lavender’s two free throws with 11 seconds left clinched it.
Keena Young, the Mountain West Conference player of the year, led all scorers with 24, one more than Xavier’s Justin Doellman. BYU remains winless in the NCAA since beating SMU in 1993, going 0-for-6 since.
“It doesn’t take away from (the regular-season conference title) but it left something unfinished,” said Ainge, 1-for-7 in the second half. “It was a goal we put at the beginning of the year, and we didn’t quite get it done. And that hurts.”
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
