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JP is trending back upward
After struggling when the load was put solely on his back at the end of the regular season, JP turned in two excellent games at MSG. Tonight, he shot X back into the game with three big threes in the second half. For X to make a run at the NCAA tournament, they need tonight's JP.
There is no quit in this squad
The beginning of the second half was an uphill battle for X with Creighton making 10 straight field goal attempts at one point amd leaing by as many as 6. Still, X mustered a third comeback in three nights to take the game down to the wire. The result didn't go their way, but no one can fault the effort of this team tonight.
This is a tournament-level team
In the past few weeks of the season, most of the case for Xavier's inclusion in the NCAA Tournamnet was based on what they had done. Last night and tonight, they showed that they can still play right along with high level teams. Butler will be around the 4 line and Creighton is a trending upward 7. X was right in both these games showed that even without Ed Sumner, X is still a very good team.