Monday, February 25, 2002
Muskies champs with work left to do
Win A-10 West; No. 1 seed next goal
By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer
PITTSBURGH — There was some anticlimax Saturday when Xavier claimed a share of its first Atlantic 10 West Division title in four years, as student managers relayed by cell phone the news of Dayton losing as the Musketeers waited to board a plane.
If it felt like backing into a title, there was no aftertaste Sunday when XU seized the crown outright with an 80-66 victory at Duquesne. Notice was served that it's not yet finished.
“We're playing for the outright champs of the A-10,” junior center David West said. “We've got two more games left. We want to play hard in those games, harder than we've played all year. That's just how bad we want it.”
XU had won the A-10 West outright just once before, in 1997.
The Musketeers (20-5, 12-2 A-10) need one victory in their final two games — home dates with La Salle and Massachusetts — to secure the top overall seed in the A-10 Tournament. Winning both would clinch the league's best overall record outright; they shared that honor with Saint Joseph's (both 13-3) in 1997.
XU also extended its school-record string of 20-victory seasons to six and moved closer to “lock” status for the NCAA Tournament.
“We're not even looking that far,” West said of the NCAAs. “Our main focus is taking care of our business in the A-10, making sure that there's no tie or share or anything like that.”
Having lost their last two road games and faced double-digit, first-half deficits in its last three such contests, the Musketeers had talked of the need to be assertive early.
Against the Dukes (9-17, 4-11), XU was perhaps too aggressive the first nine minutes, shooting 5-of-16 with five shots not even reaching the rim. It trailed 15-13.
Then came the roar: a 26-2 run over six minutes. West, who scored 17 of XU's first 18 points, thrived against rare man-to-man coverage. XU was running, getting 10 of its points in that span on transition.
“After the (loss Wednesday) at Temple, we said, "We've got to jump on them, play hard; everybody's got to be aggressive,' ” XU sophomore Romain Sato said. “That's the way we have to play on the road.”
XU made that key charge without Sato, who endured a third consecutive scoreless half when he drew two quick fouls and sat down until halftime. Yet even when West joined him on the bench midway through the run, XU outscored the Dukes 7-0 without its two stars.
The key contributor was fifth-year senior Alvin Brown, who totaled a season-high 10 points, a career-high six assists, three steals and no turnovers. The reserve guard had seven points, five assists and all his steals in the first half.
“Those 13 (first-half) minutes he had were huge for us,” Matta said.
Said Brown: “I was really trying to get Dave West the ball. When I got in the game, I told him I was coming to him every time.”
Nineteen of West's 25 points came in the first half. The second half belonged to Sato, who made five of his last six shots and scored 16 points.
When the Dukes crept within nine points with 12:24 left, XU got three consecutive 3-pointers — one from Lionel Chalmers and two from Sato — to stretch the lead back to 16.
“There's a lot of threats out there,” Duquesne forward Wayne Smith said of XU. “Those 3s kind of broke our back.”
XU won with well-rounded play. It made 21 free throws, including 20 of its first 22. It forced 19 turnovers, 15 of them in the first half, and blocked six shots. All nine scholarship players played at least six minutes.
“Xavier's a very physical basketball team,” Dukes coach Danny Nee said. “They remind me of Cincinnati. (Kevin) Frey complements (West and Sato) well.”
XU finished 9-3 in away games, its best road record since going 9-2 in 1996-97.
Box Score
XAVIER (80)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Frey 34 3-10 3-3 2-3 1 2 9
West 33 9-15 7-9 1-3 0 3 25
Chalmers 35 3-7 2-4 0-3 3 3 10
Sato 26 5-9 2-2 2-5 3 3 16
Young 20 3-6 0-0 1-4 2 3 6
Williams 6 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 2
Coleman 7 0-1 2-2 1-3 2 0 2
Brown 25 2-6 5-6 1-4 6 1 10
Jackson 11 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 2 0
Baronas 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Caldwell 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Compton 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 26-58 21-26 9-27 17 17 80
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.448, FT-.808. 3-Point Goals:
7-17, .412 (Frey 0-1, West 0-1, Chalmers 2-4,
Sato 4-5, Young 0-2, Brown 1-3, Caldwell 0-1).
Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 6 (West 4,
Chalmers, Young). Turnovers: 11 (Sato 3, West 3,
Chalmers 2, Young 2, Williams). Steals: 8 (Brown
3, Chalmers 3, Frey, Jackson).
DUQUESNE (66)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Smith 33 11-19 3-3 2-2 2 2 26
Njoya 35 2-6 0-0 3-8 2 4 4
Clark 13 1-3 0-0 0-1 1 1 2
Hunter 24 4-6 4-6 1-3 2 4 12
Forney 32 4-12 3-5 0-9 0 1 12
Samabaly 12 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 2 0
Midgley 8 0-0 2-2 0-0 0 1 2
Bluemling 10 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Pawlak 17 1-2 0-0 0-3 1 2 2
Lovelace 16 3-4 0-0 1-2 1 5 6
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 26-54 12-16 7-30 9 22 66
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.481, FT-.750. 3-Point Goals:
2-9, .222 (Smith 1-4, Njoya 0-1, Hunter 0-1,
Forney 1-2, Bluemling 0-1). Team rebounds: 6.
Blocked shots: 4 (Pawlak 3, Clark). Turnovers: 19
(Hunter 3, Lovelace 3, Midgley 3, Njoya 3, Smith
3, Forney 2, Pawlak 2). Steals: 2 (Forney,
Hunter).
__________________________________
Xavier 42 38 - 80
Duquesne 30 36 - 66
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. A: 6,010. Officials:
Michael Kitts, Joe Demato, Ed Corbett.
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