By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PITTSBURGH - This is the opportunity coach Danny Nee told his Duquesne players eventually would come.

"The chance to upset a nationally ranked team on your home floor," Nee said. "If you can't get excited about that, you don't belong in college basketball."

If Duquesne defeats No. 13 Xavier (20-4, 11-1 Atlantic 10) tonight at A.J. Palumbo Center, it would send shockwaves throughout the Atlantic 10 Conference, not to mention the rest of the nation.

But Nee suspects there is little his team can do to slow Xavier, which has won 11 straight games - the third-longest active win streak in the nation - to take over first place in the A-10. With a 6-0 mark in A-10 road games, Xavier is one of seven Division I teams with perfect conference road records.

"This is kind of like Custer at Little Bighorn," Nee said. "We're looking for a fight. The only difference is, I know what's over the hill."

A win against Xavier could make Duquesne's season. The Dukes have struggled to a 3-10 conference record and are 9-17 overall.

But for Xavier, there is nothing special in beating Duquesne, of which the Musketeers handily disposed 93-58 Jan. 21 at Cintas Center. The game would go down as just another victory toward a second consecutive regular-season A-10 championship.

"That (regular-season) conference championship has been our main goal from the beginning," senior forward David West said. "We just have to stay focused on that. We know we will get everyone's best shot, but we have to play our basketball."

That means play strong team defense combined with a heavy dose of West and Romain Sato on the offensive end.

West is averaging 20.3 points and 12.1 rebounds, and Sato has moved up his scoring average to 18.1 points. Between the two, Xavier has won the last six Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Awards. More could follow if Xavier keeps winning, along with a higher national ranking and a No. 1 seed in the A-10 Tournament, to be held March 13-15 at Dayton.

"We want to make it to the conference playoffs being the No. 1 seed," said center Anthony Myles. "We want to go to Dayton wearing white (as the home team)."

Xavier coach Thad Matta said despite the 11-game win streak, little things still are holding back XU.

"We're in the whole mindset right now that we are worried about ourselves and doing what we need to do to get better," Matta said. "Yeah, we're in first place today, but there's still four games to play."

Xavier's previous win, a 73-72 last-minute victory at University of Dayton Arena on Saturday, broke a first-place tie with the Flyers (19-5, 11-2) in the loss column and allowed Xavier to be in control of its destiny as long as it wins out the regular season.

"Going there and winning was big," Matta said. "We had a chance to fold at the end, but we didn't."

He expects Xavier might be in that position again this season with a road game at Saint Joseph's and a home game against Temple still on the schedule.

"One game comes right before the other," senior Lionel Chalmers said. "We just want to keep ourselves in the driver's seat."

When the time comes, the Musketeers will start thinking about playing for NCAA Tournament seeding. That won't be for a couple weeks, however.

"Right now we want to win the Atlantic 10 Conference," Sato said. "The NCAA will come later."

Today's lineups:

XAVIER	Yr.	Ht.	PPG
Lionel Chalmers	Sr.	6-0	10.6
Romain Sato	Jr.	6-5	18.1
Dedrick Finn	Fr.	6-1	7.2
David West	Sr.	6-9	20.3
Anthony Myles	Jr.	6-9	10.8

Coach: Thad Matta (46-10, second season; 70-18 overall).

DUQUESNE	Yr.	Ht.	PPG
Elijah Palmer	Jr.	6-7	9.2
Njoya Simplice	So.	6-10	7.6
Ron Dokes	Jr.	6-8	10.1
Bryant McAllister	Fr.	6-3	7.1
Jimmy Tricco	Jr.	6-8	10.7

Coach: Danny Nee (18-36, second season; 386-315 overall).

E-mail ddow@enquirer.com