Torrid Shooting Xavier Downs WVU in Third-Place Game Sunday

Sunday, November 23

Charleston, S.C.

3:30 p.m.

West Virginia University

5-2,0-0Big 12

Xavier

4-3,0-0Big East

West Virginia

Xavier

Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications

Torrid Shooting Xavier Downs WVU in Third-Place Game Sunday

November 23, 2025 06:57 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: John Antonik

Xavier made 16 of 25 from 3-point range to defeat West Virginia 78-68 in today's third-place game of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic at TD Arena in Charleston, South Carolina.

The 16 triples matched the most ever made by a Mountaineer opponent done seven different times now, most recently by Cincinnati in the 2024 Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.

"We just allowed them to establish a comfort zone and a rhythm offensively," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said afterward. "We weren't impactful enough on the defensive end of the floor and they were able to move the ball freely and find the open man.

"When they found the open man, they didn't miss," he added.

Five different Musketeers players made 3s, led by Jova Milicevic and Tre Carroll, who connected on five each. All Wright made all four of his 3s and Xavier got one each from Filip Borovicanin and Roddy Anderson III to improve to 4-3 on the season.

Milicevic led all scorers with 21 points while Carroll chipped in with 17.

Xavier, which made just 9 of its 30 field goal attempts inside the 3-point line, was 12 of 12 from the free throw line.

West Virginia led by eight with 9:26 left in the first half on Morris Ugusuk's layup, but Xavier closed out the half on a 21-5 run to take a 36-28 halftime lead.

The Mountaineers got the deficit down to three, 44-41, on Treysen Eaglestaff's short jumper, and was trailing by five, 66-61, on two Honor Huff free throws. But Xavier answered with a Wright 3 and then got a bank-shot 3 from Borovicanin with 3:36 remaining to push the lead back to nine.

"That's what happens when you allow someone to get comfortable," Hodge said of Borovicanin's unlikely trey. "They've seen the ball go through the net so many times and we just couldn't string enough stops together consistently enough."

Two Wright free throws with 37 seconds left gave Xavier its biggest lead of the game at 13.

One encouraging sign for West Virginia was the 20 points scored by Eaglestaff, who came into today's contest shooting just 24.4% from the floor. He was 8 of 15 today and 4 of 4 from the free throw line.

"He was aggressive and I thought he got downhill with his drives," Hodge said. "He made some simple plays. He had a couple of clean looks from 3 that didn't go down, but we desperately need a secondary scorer to step up, and we need some consistency from people.

"We haven't been able to have that consistent other player," Hodge observed. "Chance (Moore) was really good a night ago and Harlan (Obioha) was really good against Pitt, but we need a little more consistency, and we need practice which is what we're going to get this week."

Huff scored all 16 of his points in the second half while Brenen Lorient ended the afternoon with 11.

West Virginia (5-2) outscored Xavier 32 to 14 in the paint, and had a 33 to 31 edge on the glass, but unfortunately 3 counts more than 2 and the Musketeers made 10 more than the Mountaineers.

"We felt going into the game that we were going to have an advantage physically, but we weren't able to establish that," Hodge explained. "That's where the disappointment comes on my end. We missed 33 shots and really only had three offensive rebounds, seven for the game, but two were team and Trey got a couple at the very end."

The start of today's game was delayed because of Clemson's overtime victory over Georgia in the opening contest.

The Mountaineers will have seven days off before returning to action on Sunday afternoon at Hope Coliseum against Mercyhurst. That game will tip off at 3 p.m.