Women's basketball struggles in A-10 play

Over the past week, the Xavier women's basketball team played the Butler Bulldogs and then head- ed down south to play Charlotte. The Musketeers kept both games close, but did not win either game. They lost 71-67 to Butler and 55- 67 to Charlotte. In the matchup against Butler, redshirt senior forward Amber Gray carried the weight of the Musketeers by putting up 20 points. She shot a solid 50 percent from the floor and went 8-for-12 from the line. Gray was one re- bound away from a double-dou- ble, bringing in nine boards. Sharpshooting junior guard Ashley Wanninger went 4-for-7 from the field and 3-for-4 from the free throw line, scoring 15 points. She was the second leading scorer for the Musketeers, right behind Gray. Junior guard Ty O'Neill totaled three assists, the highest individual total for anyone on the Musketeers against Butler. Defensively, junior guard Shatyra Hawkes had five takeaways in the game and five rebounds. Hawkes also was the third leading scorer, putting up 13 points. When playing Charlotte the hot hand for Xavier was Wanninger who shot 62 percent from the field and led the team in scoring with 19 points. Gray and Hawkes played fantas- tic defense and led the team with two steals each. The Musketeers
had a total of six takeaways in the matchup. When it comes to being all over the stat sheet, Gray and Hawkes touched almost every stat col- umn. Gray had eight points, 12 re- bounds, five assists, one block and two steals. Hawkes had 15 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals. The team ran into some trouble in the second half, shooting 13-32 from the floor, 40.6 percent, while Charlotte was able to shoot 17-32, 53.1 percent. Charlotte was 6-6 at the free throw line. By contrast, Xavier was 5-8 from the line. The Musketeers take on Fordham in Cintas Center on Wednesday and then travel to face the Richmond Spiders, on Sunday. Both are conference matchups.