By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Xavier coach Thad Matta answered the final question about his lineup in Tuesday night's exhibition game against EA Sports. Anthony Myles is the starting center - for now.

Myles, a junior-college transfer, started and grabbed six rebounds and scored two points in 21 minutes. Freshman Will Caudle, who sat out last year, came off the bench to score five points and get four rebounds in 18 minutes during the Musketeers' 92-63 win in front of 6,222 at the Cintas Center.

With David West, Romain Sato, Lionel Chalmers and Dave Young returning as starters, the only major question was who would fill the departed Kevin Frey's spot for the Nov. 18 regular-season opener against St. Peter's.

"The good news for us is we still have a couple weeks to see who's going to play," Matta said. "I thought Anthony (Myles) did a pretty good job tonight for his first college game."

Matta said both centers could split time at the position. Caudle fouled out with three minutes left to play Tuesday, but Matta was pleased with his intensity.

"That's what we need from Will," Matta said. "We need energy. We need toughness."

Caudle, who could only practice last year as a partial qualifier, also played in his first game at the Cintas Center.

"It felt good," Caudle said. "I was kind of nervous at first."

A third center, sophomore Anthony Coleman, is serving a two-game suspension for academic reasons, and will also miss next Tuesday's exhibition game against One-World All-Stars.

Matta also put freshman Dedrick Finn, Chalmers and Sato in the mix simultaneously, with Finn at point guard.

The Finn-Chalmers combination worked smoothly in the first half, particularly when Chalmers converted an easy layup on a give-and-go with Finn.

"I thought that the unselfishness was good," Matta said. "That's something we talked about before the game, making the extra pass."

Sato and West were both comfortable passing the ball and led the team with five assists each.

Chalmers, who was a shooting guard in high school, finished with 15 points, shooting seven for 10. He said switching positions isn't a problem.

"I'm out there to play," he said. "I understand the plays. I'm the point guard. I'm supposed to know the plays. Any position I can pretty much handle."

Offensively, Xavier got what was expected from other starters. West finished with 21 points and nine rebounds. Sato scored 20 points, and made four of eight 3-point attempts, and Young scored 11 points with five rebounds. As a team, Xavier shot 49 percent for the game to EA Sports' 40 percent.

Freshman Angelo Smith came up big in just nine minutes on the court. He scored six points and grabbed three rebounds with an assist.

"(The offense) was good for the first time," Chalmers said. "We've got a lot of freshmen and going through practice is one thing, but when we get out there on the floor, guys mentally break down, and I think we did a good job staying focused and executing."

Xavier had little trouble against man defense Tuesday night, but the Musketeers looked less sure of themselves facing a zone defense. Good 3-point shooting, 9-for-20 as a team, helped solve that problem.

One time in particular, at the end of the first half, an EA Sports zone defense forced Xavier into a shot clock violation coming out of a timeout.

"We had a play set, and they switched up and went zone on us," Chalmers said. "We're comfortable with the zone because we saw a lot of it last year. It's not a problem, it's just a matter of switching over, and that was the first time they went zone."

Former Kansas player Adonis Jordan led EA Sports with 16 points and five rebounds.

E-mail ddow@enquirer.com

EA Sports	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Garrison	25	1	6	1	2	2	3	4	5	3
Thurmond	25	4	6	3	5	4	0	1	1	11
Johnson	26	3	5	0	0	5	1	2	2	6
Jordan	34	5	12	3	3	5	4	2	2	16
Harrison	16	1	7	0	1	2	0	1	4	2
Anders	26	5	14	2	2	6	0	1	1	12
Jones	25	4	9	0	0	5	2	3	3	8
Nilson	16	2	4	0	0	1	1	4	3	5
Lasege	7	0	0	0	2	2	0	1	2	0
Totals	200	25	63	9	15	36	11	19	23	63

Team rebounds - 4.

Xavier	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Young	28	4	12	2	4	5	5	0	0	11
West	31	9	17	1	2	9	3	2	2	21
Myles	21	1	5	0	0	6	0	0	4	2
Chalmers	26	7	10	1	2	5	4	1	1	15
Sato	33	7	13	2	2	2	5	1	1	20
Smith	9	2	5	2	2	3	1	1	0	6
Finn	17	1	3	0	0	1	3	1	2	2
Jackson	15	2	3	3	3	2	1	1	2	7
Christiansen	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Caudle	18	1	2	3	4	4	2	5	1	5
Compton	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Totals	200	35	72	13	17	40	24	12	13	92

Team rebounds - 2.

EA Sports	26	37	-63
Xavier	44	38	-92

Attendance-6,222. 3-point goals-EA 4-20 (Garrison 0-4, Johnson 0-1, Jordan 3-7, Harrison 0-2, Anders 0-3, Jones 0-2, Nilson 1-1); XU 9-20 (Young 1-4, West 2-3, Chalmers 1-2, Sato 4-8, Finn 0-1, Jackson 0-1, Christiansen 1-1). Technical fouls-None. Officials-Clark, Montgomery, McCarthy.