Xavier University Athletics
Decade Of Dominance, Game No. 12
10.22.10 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 22, 2010
Over the past three weeks fans were able to vote on what they believed to be the top 10 games of the Decade of Dominance. As part of the celebration leading up to Saturday's Musketeer Madness, games 11 through 16 will be exclusively unveiled at GoXavier.com. One game will be unveiled every day beginning Monday Oct. 18 and concluding prior to the start of festivities on Saturday Oct. 23. The top 10 games of the Decade of Dominance will be announced as part of Musketeer Madness, celebrating the start of the men's and women's basketball seasons.
Today we unveil game No. 12 as voted on by the fans. For an entire list click here.
Game #12
No. 1 Duke 66
No. 7 Xavier 63
Sunday, March 28, 2004
NCAA Tournament Regional Final
Atlanta, Ga.
The seventh-seeded Xavier Musketeers saw their season come to an end with a 66-63 loss to top-seeded Duke in the NCAA Tournament Regional Final at the Georgia Dome.
The two teams battled back and forth throughout the first half with Xavier grabbing the lead at halftime, 30-28, when sophomore guard Dedrick Finn nailed a 3-pointer just before the buzzer sounded for intermission. Xavier controlled the early part of the second half as senior forward Anthony Myles scored a pair of baskets and senior guard Romain Sato hit a free throw as XU took a 35-30 lead with 18 minutes left.
Back-to-back fouls by Myles at the 12:33 and 12:27 marks put him on the bench for good with five fouls. Myles, who was clearly the dominant inside force on either team, finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds in 23 minutes before fouling out with XU leading 44-41.
Xavier still led 56-53 with 5:31 left but Duke tied the score at 56-all with a 3-pointer at the 5:11 mark. The score remained deadlocked with under three minutes left until the Blue Devils hit another trey to take the lead for good at 59-56 with 2:56 left.
Senior guard Lionel Chalmers led Xavier in scoring with 17 points, while Sato contributed 10 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Xavier won the battle of the boards 40-39, but Duke outshot Xavier 38.9 percent to 34.9 percent.
After the game, all three of the seniors were honored with spots on the five-member All-Regional Team for the Atlanta Region.
Luol Deng led Duke with 19 points.
