The Xavier Saints poured in 30 points in the first quarter Tuesday night and began the game with a dunk by Ryan Stulken.

Unwilling to rest on their laurels, coach Ryan Luehrsmann designed a special play for Stulken to begin the second half and the 6-foot-7 senior threw down another jam to get the crowd revved up again.

The fourth-ranked Saints cruised to an impressive 78-52 victory over Davenport Assumption and headed into the holiday break with a 5-1 record.

Stulken's slam to begin the game came in transition, but his dunk to start the second half was concocted by Luehrsmann during the 10-minute intermission and took Stulken by surprise.

"He just drew it up at halftime," Stulken said. "We never ran it in practice or anything. That was the first time.

"I was kind of like, 'Are you serious, Coach?' But it worked out."

Luehrsmann learned the special play when he played for Dr. Tom Davis at the University of Iowa. It requires a back screen and a perfect lob pass, which was provided by Xavier senior Mitchell Burger.

"That was an old Dr. Tom play," Luehrsmann revealed. "I dusted off the old playbook."

The Saints scored the first 11 points of the game in less than two minutes and zoomed to a 30-13 advantage after the first quarter. Stulken, Matt Mims, Jackson Joens and Max Techau tormented Assumption with their baskets and Burger complemented the package with his defense and quick hands.

"It was a lot of fun," Stulken said. "We were running our set plays. And on defense we were getting turnovers and that makes for easy points at the other end."

The Saints suffered heavy graduation losses after finishing third at the Class 3A state tournament last year, but Luehrsmann has put a new team together that is talented and fun to watch. He warned, however, that it's still early in the season and there's lots of work to do.

"I'd like to be a little further along, to be honest with you. But the kids are working hard," he said. "We have a long ways to go to accomplish the things we want to accomplish at the end of the year.

"We're not really concerned about being ranked. We just want to find a way to peak at the right time of year and hopefully be a team that can make it to Wells Fargo (for the state tournament).

"We haven't done anything yet," Luehrsmann said. "There's pieces here. There's potential. We've got a couple of playmakers (Mims and Burger), we've got some big guys (Stulken, Techau and Joens), we've got some shooters.

"Really, how good this team is going to be will be determined on the defensive end."

Techau and Jones scored 15 points apiece. Stulken and Mims finished with 12 apiece.

Luehrsmann was happy to call the special play for Stulken and equally happy to see him play so well.

"Ryan has had that in him for the last couple of years," the coach said. "We were waiting for him to get more confident, more aggressive. And it's really neat to see that happen right now in his senior year."

Stulken said he was confident the Saints could have another good year, despite losing four starters to graduation.

"When Techau came over (from Kennedy), I knew we would have something special," he said. "We're all really close, we all like each other and we're playing together, so it's working out.

"We've started the year pretty good, but we've got to keep it going. We can't be satisfied. We have to keep working."

Cameron Sturtevant scored 13 points for Davenport Assumption, which is struggling this season with an 0-7 record.

ASSUMPTION (52): Pauli 1 0-0 3, Fitzpatrick 2 2-2 6, Klein 0 0-0 0, Wahl 0 0-0 0, Fennelly 1 1-2 4, Wallace 2 0-0 5, Phillips 1 2-2 4, Thrapp 2 3-3 7, Sturtevant 4 2-3 13, Wadsager 0 0-2 0, Grenier 2 0-0 6, Robbins 2 0-0 4. Totals 17 10-14 52.

XAVIER (78): Burns 0 0-0 0, Burger 2 2-2 6, Mims 4 2-2 12, Fettkether 0 1-2 1, Whitten 0 3-4 3, Joens 5 3-4 15, Dempewolf 0 0-0 0, Stulken 5 1-1 12, Schulte 2 0-0 4, Houtakker 2 3-3 9, Techau 6 3-4 15, Johnson 0 1-2 1. Totals 26 19-24 78.

Halftime - Xavier 44, Assumption 23. 3-point goals - Assumption 8 (Sturtevant 3, Grenier 2, Pauli 1, Fennelly 1, Wallace 1), Xavier 7 (Mims 2, Joens 2, Houtakker 2, Stulken 1). Fouled out - Robbins.