Spring Hill Stuns No. 13 Xavier, 78-68

Senior forward Noah Woolridge scored 32 points for Spring Hill College on Thursday leading the Badgers to an upset road win over the No. 13 Xavier University-New Orleans Gold Rush, 78-68.  Woolridge’s 32 points, a team season-high, mainly came from the 3-point arc where he made seven of 12 attempts (58%).

The Badgers held a 43-28 lead at half and immediately stretched the lead to 21 points with the first six points of the second half.  Xavier (20-7, 10-5) answered right back, however, with a 10-point run that cut the lead to 49-38 with 15:29 in the game.  In a game of point runs, the Badgers regrouped and used a 12-6 run to build a 61-44 advantage only to see Xavier reverse the tide one more time with a 17-6 run that made the score 69-61 in the Badgers’ favor with 3:36 remaining.

Senior Cash Covington pulled in a game high 10 rebounds for SHC, but his biggest play of the night came with 56 seconds left when he drew an offensive foul from Shaun Dumas on a lay up attempt that all but ended the Gold Rush’s final offensive threat of the night.  The Badgers would successfully convert nine of their last 12 free throws to keep Xavier at arm’s length for the rest of the game.

After Woolridge’s 32 points, freshman Nick Brown scored 13 for SHC with Marcus Coleman adding 12 points and Jeremy Price contributing 11 points.  As a team, the Badgers shot 51% (27-53) from the field and 46% (11-24) from 3-point land. 

For Xavier, Alfred Williams had 20 points, Dumas added 15 and Dannie Woods put 13 points in the basket and collected eight rebounds.  Xavier shot 45% (25-56) from the field, 35% (8-23) from 3-point territory and just 38% (10-26) from the free throw line.  The Gold Rush out-rebounded SHC 35 to 33.

The Spring Hill College (16-10, 8-7 GCAC) men travel to Shreveport, La., on Saturday for a conference game with LSU-Shreveport scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.