By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

David West shoots over Saint Joseph's John Bryant and Dwayne Jones. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

PHILADELPHIA - Eleventh-ranked Xavier, suddenly experienced in playing close games, found itself involved in another one Wednesday.

And for the fourth straight game, Xavier (23-4, 14-1) found a way to escape with a win in what looked like a losing situation.

With XU trailing 71-67 with 24 seconds left, David West made an improbable baseline jumper, then Lionel Chalmers hit a jumper in the lane with seven seconds left to send the game into overtime.

"I got open and crossed over and took my patented shot," Chalmers said of his game-tying effort.

West made two straight jumpers late in overtime that put Xavier ahead for good. Dedrick Finn made four free throws in the final 35 seconds and West closed the game with three free throws as Xavier won 88-80. Two of the final free throws were awarded after the sold-out Memorial Field House crowd of 3,200 was assessed a technical foul for throwing objects on the court.

Xavier coach Thad Matta diagramed a timeout play to get West isolated in the final minute of overtime on one of his shots.

"It was a play we hadn't run since November," West said. "He had to draw it out."

Romain Sato and Saint Joseph's Jameer Nelson scramble for a loose ball. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

West finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds. Finn scored 18 points and Anthony Myles had 17 for Xavier, which outscored SJU (21-5, 11-4) 17-9 in overtime.

"We just wanted it a lot more," Finn said.

Xavier clinched the top seed in next week's A-10 Tournament, as well as an A-10 West regular-season championship - the second in a row for Xavier.

The Musketeers needed to win either at Saint Joseph's or against Temple on Saturday to claim the regular-season title over Dayton (21-5, 14-2), which received an automatic win after St. Bonaventure forfeited games against the Flyers and Massachusetts.

The Musketeers' victory completed an 8-0 conference road season, a first for XU since joining the A-10 in 1995. Massachusetts was the last Atlantic 10 team to go undefeated on the road, in 1996.

"To me that shows a toughness with this team," Matta said.

Winning this way has become the norm for Xavier, which won its previous three games by a total of four points.

"This helps us for later," said Chalmers, "but we don't want to continue to be in this situation."

West is fouled by Saint Joseph's Dave Mallon. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

Early on it looked as if Jameer Nelson - playing without his injured backcourt mate Delonte West, who didn't play because of a stress fracture in his leg - would single-handedly prevent Xavier from winning. Nelson finished with 33 points and scored nine of the first 12 for the Hawks, who jumped out to a 21-15 lead.

Saint Joseph's led by as many as eight points twice in the first half while beating XU 18-12 on the boards.

Trailing 35-27 with 4:33 to go before the break, Xavier staged 13-4 run to close out the half. Romain Sato beat the buzzer on a long jumper right before the half that gave Xavier a 40-39 lead.

Xavier's run didn't stop there. The Musketeers began the second half by scoring the first six points, four from Myles. Xavier led 51-42 after Chalmers and Romain Sato hit consecutive 3-pointers with 16 minutes to play.

It was clear from the start that Xavier would have to shoot well to stay in the game, as Saint Joseph's double-teamed West each time he touched the ball.

Finn, Sato and Chalmers combined to make six of 11 3-pointers as Xavier shot 54 percent from the field in the first half.

E-mail ddow@enquirer.com

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Xavier	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Sato	41	4	7	0	0	4	4	3	1	10
West	45	6	11	13	16	14	4	3	4	25
Myles	35	7	15	3	7	6	0	0	1	17
Chalmers	42	5	10	0	0	7	4	3	2	13
Finn	39	5	11	4	4	2	3	3	2	18
Jackson	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Caudle	9	1	2	3	4	1	1	2	0	5
Totals	225	28	56	23	31	36	16	14	10	88

Team rebounds: 2.

Saint Joseph's	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Carroll	38	3	7	0	0	1	1	2	0	8
Mallon	11	1	1	0	0	4	0	4	0	2
Sazonov	13	3	6	0	0	5	1	1	0	6
Barley	36	5	11	2	2	3	2	1	2	14
Nelson	43	13	34	1	2	4	2	2	0	33
Cologer	5	2	3	0	0	1	0	1	2	4
Lee	5	0	2	0	0	1	0	2	0	0
Stachitas	13	0	4	0	1	1	1	2	1	0
Jones	32	2	4	1	4	12	3	2	0	5
Bryant	29	3	3	2	2	4	3	3	1	8
Totals	225	32	75	6	11	39	13	20	8	80

Team rebounds: 3.

Xavier	40	31	17	-88
Saint Joseph's	39	32	9	-80

Attendance-3,200. 3-point goals-Xavier 9-19 (Sato 2-4, Chalmers 3-6, Finn 4-9); Saint Joseph's 10-28 (Carroll 2-4, Barley 2-6, Nelson 6-15, Lee 0-1, Stachitas 0-2). Technical fouls-SJ: Bench. Officials-Lindsay, Elliott, Day.