AUSTIN, Texas – St. Edward's University Men's Basketball continued its scrappy play on Friday night with a 70-65 win over St. Xavier (Ill.) behind 19 points from senior FRANKIE MGBOLU. The victory improves the Hilltoppers to 6-1 while the 3-5 Cougars used the game as an exhibition.
 
In addition to his team-high 19 points, Mgbolu added five steals, four rebounds and two assists. RAMIR BURTON and JOHN GRAMLICH also scored in double digits with 15 points and 10 points, respectively. QUINTON LILLEY pulled down two offensive rebounds and five defensive to lead the team with seven. As a team, the Hilltoppers outscored St. Xavier 34-18 in the paint, and 16-5 in points off of turnovers. On defense the home team combined for 15 steals.
 
"We haven't seen a full 40 minutes from these guys all year, and it's perplexing to me," said head coach Andre Cook. "We probably should have been up 14-0 to start the game, but they're very good. Their coach has over 900 wins and they're going to win a lot of games this year. I know we're 6-1 and that is a good record, but we just aren't clicking right now. It may be a good thing because we don't want to peak early, but we have to figure it out. We have a long way to go."
 
The defensive tone for the game was set from the opening whistle as St. Edward's forced two turnovers in the first two minutes. A layup from Burton after the second steal, forced by Gramlich, opened the scoring, giving the Hilltoppers a 2-0 lead. Mgbolu extended the lead to 4-0 on a fastbreak, and two more steals, one from Gramlich and another from Burton, kept the Cougars scoreless nearly seven minutes into the game.
 
St. Xavier scored its first points at the 12:34 mark and followed up with five unanswered points to take a 7-5 lead over the Toppers. Back-to-back three pointers from AUBRIE KING put the home team back up 11-10, but the Cougars would not go away. Both teams exchanged baskets, and a 4-0 run to close the half would give the visitors a 29-28 edge at the break.
 
The second half opened with an early layup from Burton to give St. Edward's the lead. A three-point basket from the Cougars would tie it again at 32, but Coach Cook's team reclaimed the lead again on a pair of free throws from Mgbolu. The Hilltoppers led by as many as seven points in the second half, but it took an acrobatic layup from Mgbolu on an old-fashioned three-point play with 1:18 to play to clinch the win.
 
St. Edward's continues its homestand on Wednesday against Lone Star-foe Texas A&M-Kingsville. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Recreation and Convocation Center with live stats and video available at GoHilltoppers.com.