Xavier Women Tip Troy 99-37

The Xavier Musketeers (4-0) had little trouble with the Troy Trojans (1-5).

The 62-point margin of victory was the most since Xavier defeated Northern Kentucky 84-7 in 1983.

Ta'Shia Phillips, who had limited to 20 minutes in Xavier's last game on Tuesday, scored a career-high 29 points and pulled in 18 rebounds.  She also held Troy's leading scorer to one field goal and nine points.  She came in averaging 15.6 per game.

"Our emphasis on playing good defense. Coach McGuff told us to be aggressive.  One of our intangible goals is not looking at the scoreboard," Phillips said.

Amber Phillips, who picked up the slack for Phillips on Tuesday, scored 16 points and contributed five rebounds in just 16 minutes.  Xavier scored the first 24 points of the game, allowing Xavier to play a lot of younger players.

"Depth is going to be important for us," McGuff said.  "We got a chance to play a lot of people.  They did a great job."

Katie Rutan was out with a sore ankle.

"It's not serious but we decided to hold her out," McGuff said.

Freshmen Lynette Holmes and Ashley Wanniger saw significant time on the floor.

Holmes had just 13 minutes coming into the game and Wanniger just three.  They logged 25 and 28 respectively.  Transfer and local talent, Amber Gray had just seven minutes in the first three games but played 17 against Troy. Sabrina Johnson, a junior transfer and freshman, Latisha Walker, played six minutes.

The newcomers contributed to the win.

Holmes scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Wanninger scored eight points and dished out four assists.
Gray scored six points with five rebounds.
Johnson picked up four fouls to limit her time but scored four points.
Walker scored two points and contributed three rebounds.

The Musketeers never let up on the Trojans.

"We have talked about not looking at the scoreboard, good or bad," McGuff said.

Xavier has another 2pm game on Saturday against Delaware State.

Notes:

It was the fourth time in the last three seasons that Xavier has held an opponent to under 40 points.....The 37 points that Troy scored was the lowest since they held Cincinnati to 38 in a 69-38 win on December 6, 2009...Local high school products, Amber Gray from Lakota West and Ashley Wanniger from Colerain scored their first career points for Xavier.....Coach Kevin McGuff is now 189-70 as a head coach.  That is a .730 winning percentage.