The Xavier Musketeers pulled away from an old rival, the Butler Bulldogs, in a new conference.
The Big East is the third different conference in which the two institutions have competed. They shared membership in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, the Atlantic 10 and now the Big East.
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The game was in doubt late in the second half. With 2:27 left in the game, Xavier was clinging to a 71-68 lead. The Musketeers scored the last eight points for the final margin.
"It was the tale of two halves," Butler coach Brandon Miller said. "In the second half, we didn't execute well enough to win on either side of the court."
Semaj Christon led all scorers with 20 points, while dishing out eight assists without a single turnover.
"Semaj is such a good athlete. It is hard to game plan for him," Miller said. "We used multiple guys on him. It wasn't just one guy."
Matt Stainbrook tossed in 17 points and corralled seven rebounds. Justin Martin scored 13 points and also grabbed seven rebounds. Dee Davis scored all 12 of his points in the second half.
Butler used 61 percent shooting in the first half to take a five point lead, 42-37 into halftime.
Xavier forced seven second half turnovers to reverse its fortune.
Sweet shooting sophomore, Kellen Dunham scored 11 points, seven below his average coming into the game. He scored just two in the second half.
"Xavier put defenders on him that never left him." Miller said.
"We weren't as good as we needed to be in the first half," Xavier coach Chris Mack said. "It was a combination as us not executing and Butler making some big time shots."
Dee Davis sat on the bench in the first half with early foul trouble.
"We had our best defender, Dee Davis, on the bench with foul trouble. He did a great job in the second half," Mack said. "We were playing on of the best shooters in college basketball."
Khyle Marshall lead the Bulldogs with 14 points. Elijah Brown scored 10 off the bench.
Butler and Xavier were the top two teams in the old MCC. Both have grown their programs since then with Butler reaching the NCAA finals two years in a row, 2010 and 2011. Xavier has been to the "Elite Eight" in 2004 and 2008.
Butler won the last meeting 67-62 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis at the end of last season but Xavier owns 32-17 lead in the series.
"It was a great game from beginning to end," Mack said. "If you're a fan, you had to be on the edge of your seat. The final score didn't indicate how close the game was."
Neither team got a lot of respect in the preseason polls.
"It was a great game by the number seven and eight teams in the Big East," said Mack mocking the East Coast bias that permeates sports in the US.
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