Tru Washington scored a season-high 21 points, grabbed eight rebounds and made three steals as unbeaten Xavier handed Mississippi State its first loss, 81-63, on Friday night in the Greenbrier Tip-Off in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
Jovan Milicevic added 12 points and Nikos Chitikoudis had 11 points and six rebounds for the Musketeers (4-0).
Josh Hubbard scored 12 points for Mississippi State (3-1) and moved into third place on the school’s all-time list with 2,013 career points. Former NBA All-Stars Bailey Howell (2,030) and Jeff Malone (2,142) are the only Bulldogs to score more.
RJ Johnson added 11 points for the Bulldogs, who shot 33.3% from the field and went just 4-for-29 from 3-point range. Xavier shot 40% overall but connected on 10 of 23 attempts from beyond the arc.
The Musketeers led by 10 at halftime but quickly pushed the advantage to 53-36 on a dunk by Chitikoudis with 15:10 left.
King Grace buried a 3-pointer to cut Mississippi State’s deficit to 53-41 with 14:26 left. Xavier then scored six straight, capped by Mike Nwoko’s dunk, to extend the lead to 18 points with 12:27 remaining.
Milicevic hit a 3-pointer to give Xavier a 67-50 lead with 8:21 remaining, and Chitikoudis added two free throws 25 seconds later to extend the margin to a game-high 19 points.
Hubbard moved past Quinndary Weatherspoon (2,012) into third place on Mississippi State’s all-time scoring list with a driving basket at the 6:16 mark of the second half.
Gabriel Pozzato and Washington scored nine points apiece as Xavier led 41-31 at the break. Hubbard scored 10 in the half for Mississippi State.
Ruben Dominguez hit a 3-pointer to give Xavier a 21-14 lead with 11:02 left in the half. Filip Borovicanin scored on a layup to make it 28-20 with 5:52 to go.
The Bulldogs scored seven straight points to pull within 28-27 on a Tajuan Simpkins jumper with 3:34 remaining. But Kalek House and Pozzato answered with consecutive 3-pointers to ignite a 9-0 Xavier run that stretched the lead to 37-27 with 1:31 left in the half.
–Field Level Media
