The defense that normally drives Xavier was not fully in force until the third quarter Monday of the Gators quarterfinal winners bracket game with Edison High (Huntington Beach, Calif) at the Nike Tournament of Champions I at Perry High School.

Add in the fact that Edison features Stanford-bound guard Bonnie Samuelson and a solid supporting cast offensively and the sum was a 60-42 win for the Chargers over the Gators in the John Anderson Division of the tournament.

"We dug too big a hole and had too many turnovers early," Xavier coach Mary Hauser said. "Our defense is what drives us, and we didn't start playing the way we can really until the third quarter. We were too far back to make a run at them I think."

Xavier dropped its first game of the year after winning its first nine to open the season. Samuelson, a 6-foot-2 senior, scored 19 points to lead a balanced attack for Edision. Rilee Horton (13 points, Lauren Grego (off the bench with 11 points, including 3- 3s and Samuleson's little sister Karlie (eight points) were too much for the Gators to handle.

Bonnie Samuelson's ability was on display as she played all over the floor -point, high- and low-post and scored from all over, including a long 3 from the left baseline early in the final period to dent any comeback hopes Xavier entertained.

Edison (6-0) led 16-11 after one quarter and stretched it to as many as 18 in the second period, settling for a 38-22 lead at halftime. Xavier, demonstrating better pressure turned the tables on Edison in the third period pulling to within 10 points a couple of times.

"We played much better in the third quarter, but we needed to be within eight or 10 at halftime, not down by (16) like we were," Hauser said.
 

Edison led 49-38 heading to the final quarter and flexed its muscles to ourscore Xavier, 11-4, in the final stanza. Aubreyn Lincoln paced Xavier with 18 points -- 13 in the first half. Xavier shot the ball as well as Edison the first half (37 percent from the field), but turnovers and rebounding resulted in Edison getting 13 more shot attempts.