Butler jumped out to a 12-5 lead at Xavier Thursday night. Shots were falling and things were looking good. That was with 16:17 left in the first half. Xavier answered with an 11-0 run, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The Bulldogs would not hit another field goal until the clock read 2:57. In between, there were 13 missed field goals. Who would have thought Xavier would only end up a 51-49 winner?
Butler's stellar free throw shooting and Xavier's inability to hit a decent percentage of its own field goals meant the Musketeers never really pulled away. The biggest lead Xavier ever built was 10 points, on several different occasions. And an 8-0 Butler run in the second half closed the gap to just two -- 41-39 -- with less than six minutes left in the game. A Matt Howard 3-pointer with 3:53 left narrowed the margin to a single point, 45-44. And then a 3-point play by Andrew Smith knotted the game at 49 with 1:26 to play. It was the first tie since there was no score.
With 32.2 seconds left, however, Butler (4-4) missed its first free throw of the game. The timing couldn't have been worse. In fact, Ronald Nored missed both of his foul shots, after the Bulldogs made their first 16.
On the other end of the floor, Nored committed a foolish foul with just 4.2 seconds remaining to put Mark Lyons at the line for Xavier. The sophomore had made only one of his 10 shots from the field on the night, but he had already converted 5-of-7 free throws. He coolly knocked both down to give the Musketeers (6-2) their eventual two-point margin of victory.
An open Shelvin Mack 3-pointer that would have won the game bounced off back rim at the buzzer.
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