Xavier vs. Wake Forest recap: Musketeers survive early scare to defeat Demon Deacons

Some nights, basketball is truly a tale of two halves.

The was the case for the Xavier Musketeers on Tuesday night against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Wake Forest went into the half leading the Musketeers, 43-28. Xavier shot 29% in the first half, which was starkly contracted to their second half.

In some nonconference games, the mantra is "survive and advance". That rang true for Xavier tonight.

Here are three things we learned.

1. Edmond Sumner continues to roll

Sumner, the reigning Big East Freshman of the Week, looks like he's eager to keep the award in his possession.

The redshirt freshman from Detroit had a career high 20 points and a career high nine rebounds.

His performance came at a great time for the Musketeers, in two ways. On one hand, without Sumner's strong play, Xavier would have taken their first loss of the season. On the other hand, Sumner playing with this level of skill and confidence heading into conference play makes the Musketeers even more dangerous in the Big East.

2. Trevon Bluiett may be Big East Player of the Year right now

It's a wide open competition, but Bluiett impressed yet again on Tuesday night. He had 17 points and nine rebounds, and 14 of his 17 came in the second half.

If Sumner was Xavier's most important player in this game, Bluiett was 1A. Without his hot shooting in the second half, the Musketeers would have been in serious trouble.

On the year, Bluiett's averaging 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.

Both of these numbers are up from last season.

3. Xavier needed this?

Xavier trailed by as much as 18 points in this game. It was only their second true road test of the year. They were able to weather the storm and battle back to win by eight points.

With the Musketeers heading to Villanova for their next game, perhaps a tough test on the road like they faced Tuesday in Winston-Salem is just what the doctor ordered for the Musketeers.

As it stands, Xavier got the job done. They're 12-0 for the first time in school history, and one of five undefeated teams remaining in the country.