December 10, 2008 | AP Press

CINCINNATI, OH – Freshman point guard Terrell Holloway returned from a stress fracture in his foot and put the sizzle back into Xavier’s offense Wednesday night, helping the Musketeers (No. 9 ESPN/USA Today, No. 10 AP) stay unbeaten with a 78-56 victory over Ohio.

Xavier (8-0) has matched the second-best start in its history — the 1992-93 team opened the same way. The school record is a 10-0 start by the 1996-97 team.

Even though the record remained perfect, the Musketeers have had problems on offense in their last two games without Holloway, their quickest ball handler, best free-throw shooter and flashiest playmaker. He was back in form during the last five minutes of the first half, leading an 18-2 run that left Ohio (4-4) down and out.

C.J. Anderson scored a career-high 22 points, and Derrick Brown added 18 in a balanced offense that had its point guard back. Holloway’s best moments came during the decisive run.

He passed to Brown for a three-point play, hit a floating jumper in the key, and had a steal and a pass to Brown for a fastbreak dunk that highlighted the run and put Xavier up 48-25 at halftime. Holloway had those two points, three assists and three rebounds in 15 minutes.

Brown was 7-for-7 from the field, making all three of his shots from behind the arc, one week after coach Sean Miller wondered aloud about his inconsistent play as he recovers from a sprained ankle.

Miller was so upset with his team’s lackadaisical defense in the second half of an 81-74 win over Auburn a week earlier that he threatened lineup changes. The lineup was the same on Wednesday, and with Holloway back, so was the offense.

The next one will be a tough one. To stay perfect, the Musketeers will have to beat crosstown rival Cincinnati on the Bearcats’ home court Saturday. The way the rivalry has played out, the team with the better record or higher ranking is the one in for a rough time.

Cincinnati (6-1) will have had a full week off when its plays Xavier, which has won six of the last nine games between the schools separated by only 3½ miles.

First, the Musketeers had to try to find their form against an Ohio team playing for the fourth time in eight days. Xavier wore down the Bobcats with its crushing run at the end of the first half and led by 28 points when both teams substituted freely for the closing minutes.

Jerome Tillman led Ohio with 16 points.

With five stalwarts left from its Elite Eight team and eight newcomers, Xavier won its first six games with defense, rebounding and grit. The victory over Auburn — Xavier got up by 24 in the second half, then went soft — raised concerns about their mind-set.

In the first half against Ohio, the Musketeers looked their old selves. They shot 69 percent from the field, their best half in more than four years. The last time Xavier shot so well was the second half of an 87-67 win over Saint Joseph’s in the Atlantic 10 tournament in Dayton on March 11, 2004.

The game amounted to a homecoming for first-year Ohio coach John Groce, who was an assistant with Miller on Thad Matta’s staff at Xavier in 2001. The Bobcats fell to 2-21 against top 10 teams, the wins coming over No. 4 Kentucky in 1964 and No. 4 Ohio State in 1971.