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.org Vapormax Plus Arancioni . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. I dont know if I can quantify how far off or things like that that they might be but I would say we continue to have dialogue. Vapormax Flyknit 2 Scontate . Zvonareva, who won the tournament in 2009 and 10, couldnt handle her opponents big groundstrokes in only her third event back after 17 months out with a shoulder injury. Zvonareva made her comeback in January in Shenzhen and played in the Australian Open but lost her first matches at both tournaments. http://www.scarpevapormaxscontate.it/vapormax-bhm-italia.html . The 19-year-old Olsen played 34 games with the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL this season. In that time, hes recorded 17 goals and 17 assists with 36 penalty minutes. Vapormax Saldi . "I was fortunate to play many years at this level with a great organization and unbelievable teammates," said Hejduk in a statement. Vapormax Plus Reverse Sunset . -- Whether Jeremy Hill deserves a prominent role in LSUs offence this early in the season is a matter for debate. DENVER -- Cam Newton will get a few extra days to recover from his latest beating by Von Miller and crew. At least he wont have to seethe for seven months.Denvers dominant defense came up big against Newton again and the Broncos escaped with a 21-20 victory over the Carolina Panthers Thursday night when Graham Gano missed a 50-yard field goal with 4 seconds remaining.The Broncos collected three sacks and hit Newton eight more times, not counting the abuse he took on his 11 runs.We wanted to make sure we got to him, safety T.J. Ward said. Every time he ran we tried to put helmet and shoulder pads on him. If youre not going to slide were going to put something on you. We saw him limping throughout the game so that running stuff, you cant do that all game.Three of the hits were of the helmet-to-helmet variety but none resulted in any penalty yardage.Miller hit him high when DeMarcus Ware was taking him down, linebacker Brandon Marshall hit him in the face just as he released a pass and safety Darian Stewart leveled him in the final minute, but because Newton was whistled for intentional grounding on the play, the penalties were offsetting.Its not my job to question the officials, Newton said after finally emerging from the trainers room. I really like this officiating crew, so it wasnt something I know they did intentionally. But its not fun getting hit in the head.A wobbled Newton appeared to have done just enough to get a measure of revenge for that bludgeoning in Super Bowl 50, when Miller stripped the ball and the Lombardi Trophy from his grasp.Newton put the Panthers on the cusp of victory with a 16-yard pass to Kelvin Benjamin at the Denver 37 in the closing seconds, and another short pass to Ted Ginn Jr. put Gano well within his range.Gano, whose practice kick hugged the right upright after Denver had called timeout, missed wide left moments later.I was going to drill it, no doubt in my mind, Gano said. But this happens. Its not going to define my season.Newton, the NFLs reigning MVP, was 18 of 33 for 194 yards, with one TD and one interception.Just as he did over and over in the Super Bowl, Miller made a big play late, sweeping past right tackle Mike Remmers and sacking Newton at the 2-minute warning. A penalty on fourth-and-21, however, kept the Carolina drive alive until Newton retreated to the sideline when Gano came in for the potential game-winner.His miss only piled on the pain for Newton, who stayed on one knee in disbelieff as the stadium rocked and Trevor Siemian trotted out for one victory formation snap and a win in his first NFL start.ddddddddddddWeve got a heck of a team, a resilient team, I think you saw that tonight, said Peyton Mannings successor, who finished 18 of 26 for 178 yards with one TD, two interceptions and two sacks.The Panthers took a 17-7 led into the fourth quarter of the first Super Bowl rematch to start a season since 1970, but Siemian hit running back C.J. Anderson for a 25-yard touchdown on the next snap.Newtons next pass was intercepted by Harris at the Carolina 23. Ten plays later, Anderson bulled his way in from the 1 to give Denver its first lead at 21-17 with 9:26 remaining.After Ganos 36-yard field goal brought the Panthers to 21-20, Carolina forced a three-and-out and got the ball back at its 40 with 3:06 remaining.TAKE A KNEE: Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall, a college teammate of Colin Kaepernick, kneeled during the playing of the national anthem. Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem during San Franciscos preseason games, explaining it was to protest racial oppression and police brutality in the United States. Im not against the military, Im not against America, Marshall said. Im against social injustice.OLD TIMES: Manning made his first appearance at Mile High as a retiree, walking through the tunnel with the Lombardi Trophy. Manning said he spoke with Siemian on the eve of the game and told him he was in his corner.POACHING PANTHERS: Carolina led the league with 39 takeaways last season and had three in the opener, including two on Denvers first two drives. Shaq Thompson recovered rookie Devontae Bookers fumble at the Carolina 29 and Bene Benwikere intercepted Siemians pass at the Panthers 10.FIELD FLIP: Punter Andy Lee, who surrendered a Super Bowl-record 61-yard punt return to Jordan Norwood in February, pinned the Broncos back with a franchise-record 76-yard punt in the third quarter. His next punt traveled 61 yards.FULLBACK FUN: Rookie Andy Janovich was brought in to bore holes for Anderson, but he surprised the Panthers with a 28-yard TD run after Denvers first two drives ended in turnovers.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton ' ' '