ehind trying to scramble. Sophomore Tanner Mangum is consid

CINCINNATI -- With less weight and more quickness, guard Trevon Bluiett is turning into an all-around scorer at the heart of Xaviers offense.Bluiett scored 15 of his 23 points during Xaviers dominant first half, and the seventh-ranked Musketeers remained unbeaten with an 85-55 victory over North Dakota State on Tuesday night.The Musketeers (7-0) opened with a decisive run for the second straight game. Bluiett hit the biggest shots and finished with seven assists and five rebounds. He dropped his weight from 217 to 194 pounds in the offseason to improve his quickness.Im trying not to rely on the 3-ball too much, said Bluiett, who went 3 of 8 from beyond the arc. Live by the 3, die by the 3, and I tried to change that philosophy. Losing weight kind of helped that, too. Ive been able to incorporate things into my game.Sean OMara added 12 points and five rebounds, and Malcolm Bernard had 10 points and eight rebounds.Xavier got up 30-10 during a 64-42 win over Northern Iowa on Saturday, giving up only 12 points in the first half -- the fewest it has allowed in any half since the shot clock was introduced for the 1985-86 season. Against North Dakota State (5-3) , the Musketeers opened with a 30-11 run and were never challenged.The Musketeers finished with 23 assists on 31 field goals.I thought the offense flowed well, we shared the ball a lot, Bernard said. I love the way we played on offense. I thought it was fun, it was exciting.Redshirt freshman Deng Geu scored a career-high 18 for the Bison, who trailed by as many as 36 points. Nobody else scored more than nine.Deng is only eight games into his varsity career, coach David Richman said. He has oodles and oodles of potential, but hes struggled with his confidence. It was good for him to hit that first 3. I thought he played better after that.POLL IMPLICATIONSXavier moved up two spots in this weeks poll to No. 7, where it started the season. The Musketeers have a chance to make their case for another jump with a game at No. 9 Baylor on Saturday.BIG PICTURENorth Dakota State: The Bison are 3-11 against ranked teams, with the wins over No. 13 Wisconsin in 2005-06, No. 9 Marquette in 2006-07, and No. 20 Oklahoma during the 2014 NCAA tournament.Xavier: Sophomore forward Kaiser Gates moved much better in his second game back from surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee. He scored six points and had two rebounds in 14 minutes. Against Northern Iowa, Gates played 11 minutes, missed his only shot and picked up three fouls.His (conditioning) is probably the thing thats going to keep him back from playing more right now, its not his knee, coach Chris Mack said . We just feel like hes building toward being a full-time contributor. He took a better step tonight, a lot better step than against Northern Iowa.FAST STARTSXavier won its first 12 games last year and its first eight games in 2011, the Musketeers best starts during Macks eight seasons.QUIET SUMNERXavier point guard Edmond Sumner played only 12 minutes in the first half and didnt take a shot. He finished with five points and seven assists in 23 minutes, by far his season low.NO 3s ... OR ANYTHING ELSENorth Dakota States A.J. Jacobson was 14 of 18 on 3-points shots heading into the game, so Xavier locked in on him. Jacobson missed both of his shots and failed to score.UP NEXTNorth Dakota State plays at North Carolina A&T on Friday, ending a three-game road swing.Xavier has lost both its games against Baylor -- 69-64 during Macks first season as coach in 2009-10, and 75-70 in the third round of the 2012 NCAA tournament.---More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.orgCheap Football Jerseys China . -- Yogi Ferrell orchestrates pretty much everything in Indianas offence. Wholesale Authentic Jerseys . Nine days before the opening ceremony, organizing committee chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said Wednesday that Sochi is "fully ready" and will deliver safe, friendly and well-run games that defy the grim reports that have overshadowed preparations. http://www.cheapfootballjerseys.us.org/ .Y. -- Jayna Hefford scored the winning goal Friday as Canada survived a scare with a 4-3 win over Sweden at the Four Nations womens hockey tournament. Cheap Jerseys From China . Patrice Bergeron and Daniel Paille scored 20 seconds apart a few minutes after Stamkos was taken off the ice on a stretcher with a broken right leg, and the Bruins beat the Lightning 3-0 on Monday afternoon. Football Jerseys China . The winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. "We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors.PROVO, Utah -- UCLA will take any win it can get after a season-opening loss to unranked Texas A&M, but Saturday night sure wasnt pretty.Josh Rosen threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns as UCLA suffocated BYU 17-14 on Saturday night.Neither offense shined as the two defenses controlled most of the night, but UCLA (2-1) was able to hold BYU (1-2) to 273 yards, including 23 on the ground. The Cougars were limited to negative rushing yards until late in the third quarter and 91 of those offensive yards came on their final possession.UCLA fans hoped to see the Rosen thats expected to be a high first-round NFL draft pick after a mediocre start to the season, but BYU never allowed him to feel completely comfortable. Rosen, however, completed a handful of big passing plays, including a 33-yard touchdown to Darren Andrews.Josh has such high expectations for himself that, sometimes, he lets it get the best of him, UCLA coach Jim Mora said. He has to realize hes not going to play a perfect game. He just has to play up to his ability level and his capabilities.BYU quarterback Taysom Hill finished with 250 passing yards, one touchdown one interception and was sacked four times.Weve got to start clicking offensively, BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. We were able to do it some drives ... but we have to start doing that throughout the game. We need to be able to sustain that and be more consistent. Obviously, thats what our focus is going to be on going into this next week.THE TAKEAWAYBYU: A second consecutive loss puts BYU in an awkward position. Such is life as an independent. Without a conference championship to play for, a berth in the College Football Playoffs is basically eliminated. The Cougars are already contracted for the Poinsettia Bowl if they arent selected to a New Years Six bowl. With two losses and nine games to go, including Michigan State and Mississippi State, thats unlikely. The BYU defense continued to play better than expected this season, but the offense regressed for a third consecutive game.Yeah, its gut check time, Sitake said. You can either let adversity divide you or unite you. I think our team is united. We are all on the same page and nobody is pointing fingers or blaming anybody else we just have to be better in some phases than others.We just have to get to work. You cant blame it all on one phase -- special teams wise, defensively and offensively we just need to play ouur game plan.ddddddddddddCLA: The Bruins defense solidified after a pair of shaky performances to start the season. UCLA gave up 378 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns in the first two games, but held running back Jamaal Williams to 28 yards and shut down the mobile Hill. The Bruins also blanketed the Cougar receivers, giving Hill few options in the pass game. Jayon Brown had a team-high nine tackles.We played a ton of man coverage, Mora said. Those young men did a tremendous job under a lot of stress and that allowed our rush to get there.UP NEXTBYU: The Cougars play their fourth consecutive team from a Power 5 conference with a neutral site game against West Virginia at FedEx Field -- home of the Washington Redskins -- in Greater Landover, Maryland on Saturday.UCLA: The Bruins begin Pac-12 play, hosting No. 7 Stanford on Saturday.STREAKS CONTINUEUCLA is now 34-1 under Jim Mora when leading at halftime. The Bruins have also won 47 straight regular season games when holding an opponent under 20 points.NUMBERS SOMETIMES LIEThe Cougars first scoring drive came with the help of three defensive holding calls that totaled 24 yards. One came on a pass in the end zone to give BYU first-and-goal from the two-yard line. Thats seven points and a 75-yard drive that may not have happened without the penalties -- plus the final 91-yard drive -- making the game look closer than it actually was.QB CONTROVERSY?Hill struggled mightily for the second consecutive game despite a decent stat sheet. He missed open receivers and was repeatedly run down from behind trying to scramble. Sophomore Tanner Mangum is considered a better pure passer, if Mangum isnt creating with his legs. Sitake said they considered making the change at halftime, but decided against it.CANT COMPLAINBYU has held all three Power 5 opponents to 20 points or less this season. Sitake is a former defensive coordinator at Oregon State and Utah, but the defensive unit has exceeded expectations. Butch Pauu had a career-high 19 tackles Saturday.QUOTABLEI just wasnt connecting, Rosen said. I wasnt executing. It gets frustrating when balls just kind of sail and get away from you.It gets real frustrating. Sometimes you got to go back to basics and kind of look at yourself in the mirror and hit the reset button. ' ' '