Price

        In each of Xavier's last two road games, XU has trailed in the final minute with the crowd screaming for its blue blood. Yet Xavier won both.

        No small reason for its recent resolve: Lloyd Price. The junior forward's return from an ankle injury has brought poise to a team learning to win on the road.

        “He's a big boost for us,” sophomore guard Lionel Chalmers said. “It's helping us mentally as a team.”

        Price's presence in the starting lineup has helped XU (8-2) to its three most impressive showings of the year. Cincinnati and Toledo are both in the Top 10 of the RPI, and XU had won just six of its last 22 road games before sweeping those road trips. In between was a 16-point beating of Marquette at home.

        “I don't want to say I was the reason why we won the last few games,” Price said. “But we're focusing more, listening more to Coach (Skip Prosser), playing together as a team.”

        Price sprained his left ankle Nov.16 and missed five games. He didn't play in XU's loss at Wisconsin and was ineffective in the loss at Princeton, going 1-for-7 from the field.

        But he was well enough to start against UC and was a huge factor in XU's upset, totaling nine points, four steals, three rebounds and two assists. His thievery of UC's Steve Logan for the winning basket with 32 seconds left appears the turning point of the season.

        “It was a big play,” XU assistant coach Jeff Battle said. “Because it was UC,

        it's going to be magnified just like Lenny Brown's shot (in 1996) was.”

        Assigned to guard Marquette star Brian Wardle, Price harassed Wardle into 7-for-22 shooting while himself totaling 15 points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

        “This is the hardest I've ever seen him work defen sively,” Prosser said.

        At Toledo, Price didn't shoot well (2-for-7), but he totaled six points and grabbed nine rebounds. The ankle still isn't 100 percent.

        “I can't give my best on offense because of my physical condition, so I try to step up another part of my game,” Price said. “There's a lot of different ways to have a good game: rebounding, steals, assists, deflec tions.”

        He also brings calm and confidence to a group that once was pressing to compensate for his absence.

        “The pressure's off a lot of us,” junior forward Kevin Frey said. “It's a comfort level now that he's back.”

        Chalmers, a rookie, had been inconsistent in seven games as a starter before Price's return moved him to the bench. Freshman guard Romain Sato had struggled defensively before Price — who made the Atlantic 10's Defensive Team — returned as the stopper.

        “In Lionel's case, it gives him a chance to watch the game, pick his spots and know what he has to do as opposed to giving him the ball and making him figure it out,” Battle said. “Romain gets a chance to learn from a defensive standpoint with less pressure.”

        That helped those two sparkle at Toledo. Chalmers scored 12 points in the final 11 minutes, including the winning shot at the buzzer, and Sato had 11 points.

        “We're building more confidence off of each other,” Price said. “We're getting momentum.”

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