Jan. 26, 2008

Xavier was forced to share last year's Atlantic 10 regular-season title with Massachusetts. A road victory over the Minutemen on Sunday would go a long way toward preventing that from happening again.

The 23rd-ranked Musketeers responded to their biggest challenge of the season in a big way, rolling to a 69-43 victory over No. 16 Dayton on Thursday.

Senior guard Stanley Burrell scored 13 points and anchored an outstanding defensive effort as Xavier (16-4, 4-1) won for the eighth time in nine games overall and improved to 11-1 at home.

B.J. Raymond added 12 points and Josh Duncan had 11 for the Musketeers, who had a 41-24 rebounding advantage and held the Flyers to 30.4 percent (14-for-46) shooting.

"I thought tonight he really put it all together," Xavier coach Sean Miller said of Burrell. "He was the MVP of the game."

As well as Miller's team played, Dayton was without two of its four leading scorers due to injuries. Still, Burrell did an outstanding job limiting leading scorer Brian Roberts to a season-low five points.

"In fairness to Dayton, they've got two key guys out and Brian Roberts wasn't playing as much in the second half," Miller said. "That clearly doesn't allow them to be the same team they've been."

Xavier and Massachusetts each finished last season with 13-3 conference records, but the Musketeers were the top seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament because they won the only meeting between the schools, 83-77 on Jan. 18.

Thursday's victory was another example of Xavier's balanced offense that features six players averaging in double figures. The Musketeers are 13-0 when four or more players score in double digits and 3-4 when three or fewer players score 10 or more.

Xavier has not had a player score more than 14 points in any of its last three games.

Burrell, who usually draws the assignment of matching up against the opposition's top player, may need some help Sunday. Massachusetts (13-5, 2-2) is among the nation's leaders in scoring (84.9), and is the only school in the country with a pair of 20-point scorers in Ricky Harris (20.7) and Gary Forbes (20.5).

The Minutemen, though, are also the worst defensive team in the conference, giving up 78.5 points per game.

UMass was unable to overcome a slow start in an 81-77 road loss to Saint Joseph's on Wednesday.

Harris scored a career-high 30 points and Forbes added 24 for the Minutemen, who managed only 16 first-half points, their lowest-scoring half since a nine-point effort at Temple on Feb. 1, 2006.

Harris has scored at least 20 points in five straight games, shooting 52.2 percent (23-of-44) from 3-point range in that span.

Returning to the Mullins Center should help Massachusetts, which has won 16 of its last 17 home games, including seven of eight this season. The Minutemen are 29-5 at home since the start of the 2005-06 season.

UMass has split two games this season against ranked teams, losing to then-No. 15 Vanderbilt and beating Dayton.

Xavier has won two straight and six of its last eight overall meetings with Massachusetts. The Musketeers, however, have lost four of their last five visits to Amherst.