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Dayvion McKnight hit a big 3-pointer late, Zach Freemantle had game-highs of 17 points and seven rebounds, and No. 22 Xavier held off a pesky South Carolina State team to win 71-68 on Sunday in Cincinnati, Ohio.

McKnight’s shot with 57 seconds left put Xavier up 64-59. He scored 14 points and added five assists while shooting 9-for-10 from the free throw line.

Xavier (7-1) struggled with turnovers for a second straight game in the win. After committing a season-high 19 against Michigan on Wednesday, the Musketeers forced 18 but also gave the ball up 16 times.

Despite that, Xavier outscored SC State 26-15 at the charity stripe, including six straight makes over the final 12 seconds to hold the Bulldogs at bay.

Omar Croskey and Michael Teal led South Carolina State (4-5) in scoring with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Mitchell Taylor added 11 points and five assists.

The Musketeers inched ahead 40-32 a little over five minutes into the second half, but the Bulldogs ripped off a quick 8-0 run on 3-pointers from Teal and Croskey and a breakaway layup by Croskey to tie it up.

With 9:30 left in a 3-point ball game, the Bulldogs’ leading scorer Drayton Jones (12.0 ppg) was issued a technical foul for clapping in an opposing player’s face, and then just over one minute later he was hit with a flagrant 2 foul for a challenge on a breakaway layup attempt by Freemantle, causing the officials to eject Jones from the game.

Freemantle made two free throws and teammate Jerome Hunter scored a minute later to make the score 52-43, putting the Musketeers back in control. Hunter finished with 10 points.

Hunter extended the lead to 58-45 on a layup with 5:38 to play, but SC State rallied again, scoring the next 10, capped by a Croskey 3-pointer to make it 58-55.

Croskey cut it to 58-57 on a breakaway slam dunk with 2:31 left. After three free throws by the Musketeers, James Marrow hit two for SC State, which set the stage for McKnight’s 3-pointer.

The Bulldogs fought back again. Wilson Dubinksy hit a turnaround in the lane and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but SC State gathered the rebound and Croskey hit another big three with 16 seconds left to cut the lead to 65-64.

Xavier’s leading scorer Ryan Conwell had a quiet day with nine points on 3-of-10 shooting before fouling out with three minutes to play.

Xavier led 32-26 at the half.

-Field Level Media