By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The term Xavier players like to use is "road warriors." That's a fairly adequate description of Xavier's Atlantic 10 play away from Cintas Center.

The Musketeers, ranked 11th in this week's Associated Press poll, have won all seven of their A-10 road games and can secure a perfect conference road record with a victory Wednesday at Saint Joseph's.

Xavier (22-4, 13-1 A-10) hasn't gone undefeated on the road in the A-10 since joining the league in 1995.

"I think it's very impressive," said Xavier coach Thad Matta. "And I'm happy for our guys, knowing we've got one to go."

Xavier has one of the more demanding road schedules in the A-10, with two separate sets of three consecutive road games. Life away from home may have caught up with XU last week when Duquesne took the team to overtime. But games like that prepare teams for postseason play.

"Winning on the road is the best thing," said Romain Sato. "Because in the NCAA Tournament, you're not going to play at home. You better focus on playing on the road."

It helps to have veteran players like Sato, David West and Lionel Chalmers who know the rigors of conference season play.

For West, it's the second trip to Saint Joseph's unfriendly Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

"(Saint Joseph's) always plays really confident in there," West said.

That's how Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli likes it. The Hawk's home court seats just 3,200, but the small confines make for a loud crowd.

"The atmosphere on Wednesday will be astounding," said Martelli, who describes playing road games in the A-10 as the difference between fighting with a closed fist and slapping.

"On the road, you better have a closed fist."

Xavier has won its A-10 road games by an average of 8.4 points, but the last two, against Dayton and Duquesne, got interesting. Xavier won a battle for first place at Dayton 73-72 on Feb. 22, and survived overtime at Duquesne 80-78.

The Musketeers have won 13 consecutive games overall since losing the first A-10 game of the season at home to Richmond Jan. 7. A win either on Wednesday or Saturday against Temple guarantees Xavier the No. 1 seed in the A-10 Tournament March 13-15 in Dayton.

To keep the winning streak alive, however, Xavier needs a victory Wednesday in Philadelphia.

"With Xavier basketball, I think there's a toughness," Martelli said. "In my eight years here, the names have changed, but there's still a toughness. They had every right to crumble at Duquesne. That's a toughness."

Freshman point guard Dedrick Finn faces a challenge against point guard Jameer Nelson, a preseason First-Team A-10 selection. Nelson averages more than five assists per game and 17.8 points. He led the Hawks (21-4, 11-3) to the East Division conference title.

"Throughout the whole year so far, I've guarded a lot of good players," Finn said. "But I haven't really guarded someone that's considered one of the best point guards in the country."

The Hawks pride themselves on creating turnovers, and Xavier has been prone to poor execution the last two games.

"It's been like that all season," Finn said. "We always have our little lapses, and then we come out of it and pull it off in the end."

WEST GETS TV TIME: West will appear on Fox Sports Net's The Best Damn Sports Show Period, Thursday night at 12:30 a.m., or immediately following the Oregon-Arizona State game.

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E-mail ddow@enquirer.com