On the surface, a lot of things went the Hokies' way in this one. Lisa Witherspoon returned from back trouble and played 39 minutes, and although I have no idea what kind of pain she might have been in, she turned in a good line and made the rest of the team effective.

Spoon had 13 assists and set up Tere Williams repeatedly in the lane, where T-Will could go to work and score on the slower Musketeers. Williams snapped out of yesterday's funk and contributed 20 points in this one. When she got the ball down in the paint and could start moving with it, it was a done deal that she was going to score. Xavier didn't have anyone who could even think about handling her.

Amy Wetzel, freed up from the responsibility of running the point, put on a clinic and scored a career-high 28 points. Wetzel scored on drives, and she scored on jumpers, and she looked like the same Amy Wetzel who lit it up during last year's A-10 tournament and NCAA tournament run.

With Witherspoon back (pun intended), Wetzel and Williams scored 48 points on 20-31 shooting. Michelle Houseright chipped in 10 more points on near-perfect shooting, and the Hokies shot a respectable 5-15 from three-point land and 10-13 from the free throw line.

And it was, no kidding, one of the best-played, most exciting games I've ever seen, in men's or women's basketball. The two teams raced up and down the floor like greyhounds at a Florida dog track, and it was a thrill a minute. I thought the Hokies came up with a great effort on a night where they really needed it.

So how did Tech lose?

In a word, defense. Or lack thereof.

Xavier has a couple of good guards and talented three-point shooters in Nicole Levandusky and Nikki Kremer. Kremer is the passer/slasher, while Levandusky is more the pure shooter.

Not only did the Hokies not find Levandusky early enough and often enough on defense, allowing her to shoot open three-pointers, but they repeatedly let Xavier penetrate into the paint or pass the ball down low for easy buckets. Once Xavier started hitting their threes, which was early in the game, my friends, it stretched out the Hokie defense and opened things up inside.

Just six Xavier players played all but 4 of the minutes for the Musketeers, and every one of those six players scored 12 points or more. They shot 33-of-57 from the field for a season best (against Tech) 58%, and more importantly, they hit 9-18 three pointers, led by Levandusky's 5-7 from behind the arc.

It seemed that every time Tech started to make a run, Xavier would hit a three-pointer, and every time Tech drove down court for a quick bucket, Xavier would push the ball back up floor for an easy layup. It was frustrating to watch, because Tech really did play well on the offensive end. It was the defensive end that killed them.

I don't know what it is about Xavier, but the Musketeers match up with Tech very well. I'm not enough of a basketball tactician to understand why it is that while other teams struggle against Tech, Xavier makes it look easy against the Hokies. But the bottom line is, despite the presence of Lisa Witherspoon, and despite the fact that Tech played very well on the offensive end in this one, the Hokies simply got hammered by a Xavier team that continues to vex them. Tech is 1-2 against Xavier, and 25-0 against the rest of their schedule, and it boggles the mind.

Tip your hat to Xavier, though. The Hokies didn't lose this one, like they almost lost to Rhode Island or Dayton. No, the Musketeers just flat-out beat Tech.