By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Lionel Chalmers drives past Purdue's Brandon McKnight. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

If Xavier coach Thad Matta had known Romain Sato would have zero points and two rebounds in the first half of Tuesday night's game against Purdue, he probably wouldn't have liked his team's chances. But inspired play from guard Lionel Chalmers, playing against a former high school opponent, gave Xavier an early lift and helped the No. 16 Musketeers (3-1) to a 74-59 win.

Chalmers led an unlikely scoring contingent in the first half that included eight points from starting center Anthony Myles and six more from Dave Young off the bench. But it was Chalmers' weaving drives to the baskets that really got Xavier going and led to a 12-2 run midway through the half. Chalmers scored 10 in the half and finished the game with 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting and 6-of-6 from the foul line.

"(Chalmers) made big plays," Matta said. "During a couple of our runs he had great assists. On the shots he made, he was able to get inside their defense."

David West shows a little attitude. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

Purdue's Willie Deane and Chalmers played on rival teams in Schenectady, N.Y., during high school. Last season at Purdue, Deane scored 10 points in a 70-66 Purdue win, while Chalmers shot just 1-of-10 and scored four points.

Tuesday, Chalmers clearly got the better of Deane in the first half, but Deane scored 11 second-half points to finish with 21, which kept Purdue from losing by more than 15.

"It's just another game," Chalmers said. "I wanted to take some pressure off of Dave (West) and make some shots. That's just how it went."

The performance was Xavier's most complete of the season and came after the Musketeers had nine days off after a Nov. 24 win against Florida A&M. Matta wanted to use the nine days to allow players to not only come together as a team, but battle for playing time as well.

"Being out for nine days, it's tough to be ready to play right away," Chalmers said, "But we were ready right away."

Romain Sato shoots over Purdue's Austin Parkinson. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

Myles got the start ahead of Will Caudle, who had started against Florida A&M. Myles made the most of it by scoring Xavier's first two baskets, including a 17-foot baseline jumper.

"I was ready to go today," Myles said. "I can shoot, a little bit. Defensive-wise I don't think I did a great job, but a good enough job to help us get the victory."

Xavier expanded a 12-point halftime lead to 20 at 51-31 five minutes into the second half. Purdue (2-1) never got closer than 14 after that, although Matta and David West expressed disappointment that XU didn't finish stronger.

Tuesday's game was the first in a four-game, 11-day stretch. Next up is Cincinnati in the Skyline Crosstown Shootout on Saturday.

"We just wanted to make sure we finished this game," West said, "before we started looking ahead to whoever our next opponent is."

Which is?

"I don't know," West said, jokingly. "I'll have to look on the schedule."

Will Caudle gets pumped. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

Purdue's defensive focus was squarely on Sato to start the game. Kenneth Lowe stayed within an arm's length of Sato throughout the first half and limited him to four shots, all misses. Eventually Sato scored midway through the second half and finished with 10.

"If somebody told me that before the game, I would have thought we would have had the lead (at halftime)," said Purdue coach Gene Keady. "But Chalmers is a great penetrator, and it was one of our priorities not to let him do that. But we weren't even close to stopping him."

Purdue's focus on Sato freed up West, who scored 18 points and had a game-high nine rebounds.

Purdue	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Buscher	22	4	10	0	0	1	0	4	2	8
Kartelo	6	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Deane	29	9	15	2	3	1	3	2	5	21
McKnight	17	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	2	0
Lowe	26	2	6	0	0	5	2	3	0	4
Teague	10	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	3
Parkinson	11	0	0	0	0	1	3	1	1	0
Buckley	9	1	2	0	0	2	0	0	1	3
Booker	25	3	12	2	2	6	1	1	1	8
Kilgore	17	2	5	0	0	2	0	1	2	5
Garrity	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kiefer	26	3	6	1	2	6	5	3	0	7
Totals	25	60	4	5	7	28	15	15	15	59

Team rebounds: 2

Xavier	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Sato	31	3	9	2	2	6	2	3	2	10
West	38	6	15	6	7	9	1	2	4	18
Myles	22	4	7	0	0	8	1	3	2	8
Chalmers	37	8	11	6	6	0	5	1	3	24
Finn	24	0	2	0	0	1	2	2	1	0
Young	15	3	7	0	0	5	0	2	0	8
Coleman	3	0	00	0	0	1	0	1	2	0
Jackson	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Caudle	16	3	5	0	0	1	1	0	1	6
Totals	200	27	56	14	15	37	12	14	15	74

Team rebounds: 6.

Purdue	27	32	-59
Xavier	39	35	-74

Attendance-10,250. 3-point goals-Purdue 4-13 (Buscher 0-1, Deane 1-4, Lowe 0-1, Teague 1-2, Buckley 1-2, Kilgore 1-3); Xavier 6-17 (Sato 2-6, West 0-2, Chalmers 2-4, Finn 0-1, Young 2-4). Technical fouls-None. Officials-DeMayo, Greenwood, Sanzere.