CINCINNATI -- Seton Hall guard Sterling Gibbs earned his honor as Big East Player of the Week in the first week of league play. The junior had 25 points and eight assists without a turnover against nationally-ranked St. John's in a 78-67 win for the Pirates. He followed that up with 20 points and four assists in a 66-61 overtime win against preseason conference favorite Villanova.
Xavier was well aware of what Gibbs and Seton Hall had done so far this season, which was to go 12-2 and earn its highest national ranking in 14 years at No. 19 entering Wednesday's game at the Cintas Center. They proved up to the challenge, especially junior guard Remy Abell.
Abell scored just five points himself but it was his constant hounding of Gibbs that held Gibbs to just eight points and helped Xavier to a 69-58 win. It's the second consecutive win for Xavier (11-4, 2-1 Big East) at home against a Top 25 team; the Musketeers beat then-No. 25 Georgetown 70-53 on New Year's Eve. In between they lost at DePaul last Saturday.
DePaul (9-7 overall) is alone in first place with a 3-0 league record after winning at Creighton Wednesday, 70-60. It was just the fourth win by a road team in Big East play through the first 30 league games.
Abell averages better than 10 points a game for the season, and was averaging closer to 12 points over the last seven games, but offense wasn't his main focus in this game.
Gibbs was.
"Remy takes personal challenges very personal and tonight he had a big one on his plate," said Xavier coach Chris Mack. "He loves to defend. He cannot stand giving up points."
It was just the second game this season Gibbs failed to score in double figures. He had just three points in a loss at Georgia but he came into the game Wednesday shooting 47.7 percent overall from the field and 50 percent (33-of-66) from 3-point range. Gibbs made just 3-of-11 shots from the field, including missing all six attempts he had in the first half.
The Musketeers got balanced scoring as nine players had at least three points for them. Senior guard Dee Davis led with 14 points and six assists, while freshman guard Trevon Bluiett had 13 points and seven rebounds. Abell wasn't completely absent on offense. He had one of two important 3-pointers for Xavier as the Musketeers went from trailing with four points with 10:38 left to winning by double digits for the 11th time this season.
This was a night to laud the Xavier defenses, however.
"What sparked our run was our defense," said Bluiett. "The last 10, 15 minutes we really stuck to the scouting report and played our hearts out because we knew we needed this game. Defense got that run started."
Xavier led 33-28 at halftime but a driving layup by Khadeem Carrington with 10:38 left gave Seton Hall a 49-45 lead. It equaled the largest lead of the game for the Pirates and was the end of 26-13 run that began with the final bucket of the first half.
Xavier outscored Seton Hall 24-9 the rest of the way, including back-to-back 3-pointers by Abell and Myles Davis that erased Seton Hall's last lead and put the Musketeers in front 53-49 with 7:44 left. Xavier had made just one of its first 13 3-point attempts before those two went through the net 20 seconds apart from each other.
"Nobody is going to tell us to stop shooting," said Myles Davis, who had eight points although that 3-pointer was his only field goal of the game. "I knew eventually one of my shots was going to fall. I'm the first one to encourage everybody else to keep shooting."
Seton Hall made just three of its final 12 shots and committed five of its 11 turnovers during that final run by Xavier.
The 11 turnovers were the fewest forced by Xavier this season but the Musketeers still scored 15 points off those extra possessions. They also outscored Seton Hall 15-5 on fast break chances, with 12 of those points coming in the first half.
"We had two open looks and missed them, and they had two open looks and hit them," said Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard of the decisive run for Xavier. "I really was impressed with Remy Abell and how he guarded (Georgetown's) D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera. I thought he did a tremendous job of getting into (Gibbs) and making it difficult, and I thought Remy did a really good job of being physical from early in the plays. They stayed with him on pick-and-rolls."
Xavier will see if it can take this winning formula on the road. The Musketeers play at Butler Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and then travel to Philadelphia to play at Villanova next Wednesday night.
