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No. 13 Xavier pounds IPFW

Nov 16, 2011 - 3:18 AM Cincinnati, OH (Sports Network) - Tu Holloway scored 24 points and pulled down five rebounds in his return to the lineup, as the 13th-ranked Xavier Musketeers dominated the IPFW Mastodons, 86-63.

Mark Lyons made four three-pointers en route to 21 points for the Musketeers (2-0), who beat Morgan State, 74-63, last Friday. Dezmine Wells donated 16 points and seven rebounds.

"I thought we made improvement from game one to game two. It's really nice to have an All-American (Tu Holloway) back," Xavier head coach Chris Mack said.

Frank Gaines finished with 22 points and six boards for the Mastodons (1-1), who defeated Nebraska-Omaha, 83-72, this past Saturday. Michael Kibiloski had 13 points off the bench.

Gaines gave IPFW its only lead of the game at 6-5. Xavier responded with a 13-2 run to take control for good. Travis Taylor's layup made it an 18-8 contest with 9:15 left.

Still ahead by 10, 28-18, late in the first half, Holloway bookended an 8-1 spurt with a three-pointer and two free throws. Joe Edwards was good from beyond the arc to get the Mastodons within 36-22 at the break.

Holloway's layup early in the second half extended Xavier's margin to 44-24, which proved to be too big of a deficit for IPFW.

"First and foremost, you have to give a lot of credit to coach (Chris) Mark and his team," IPFW head coach Tony Jasick said. "They have a lot of weapons. (Dezmine) Wells hit a couple of shots early, and that allowed them to feel good about themselves."

Game Notes

Xavier owns a 4-0 advantage in the all-time series with IPFW...Xavier shot 56.1 percent from the floor and went 11-of-21 from beyond the arc.