Lionel Chalmers scores 31 as the Musketeers rally to upset the No. 2 seed.
By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published March 22, 2004
ORLANDO - With a little less than a minute left in Sunday's game, the few hundred Xavier fans nestled together across from their team's bench began a chant they've often rehearsed, but rarely performed:
"Sweet 16. Sweet 16."
Fueled by a dazzling display of 3-point shooting from senior guard Lionel Chalmers and reserve sophomore guard Dedrick Finn, Xavier overwhelmed No. 2-seeded Mississippi State 88-74 in front of an announced 15,640 at the TD Waterhouse Centre.
The No. 7-seeded Musketeers (25-10), winners of eight straight and 15 of their past 16, are in the region semifinals for the first time since 1990 and second time overall. They play No. 3-seeded Texas Friday in Atlanta. They met the Longhorns in the 1990 Sweet 16.
"To say I'm proud of these guys would really be an understatement; the effort they gave and the composure that they played with. We beat a great basketball team today," said coach Thad Matta, who had to try to concentrate on the game while daughter Emily, 3, was being treated for dehydration in an Orlando hospital.
She gave him a note with a diagrammed play that he kept folded in his pocket during the game.
"It was tough (on me) because your three biggest fans, my two daughters and my wife, weren't there," Matta said.
But they had plenty to cheer about from afar.
After falling behind the SEC regular-season champions 23-13 with 8:52 left in the opening half, the Musketeers turned to their floor leader, Chalmers. He had taken just one shot to that point and then simply took over, scoring 12 of his team's next 18 points on 6 of 6 shooting.
"When he gets in that (kind of) zone, there's not much you can do," Mississippi State junior forward Shane Power said. "Maybe Branden (Vincent) could have tackled him, I don't know."
"I wasn't into the game the first few minutes offensively and he (Matta) told me to be patient," said Chalmers, who set a career high with 31 points on 11 of 13 shooting, 4-for-4 on his 3-pointers. "They were denying me a little bit and I just remained patient. I felt the urge and I hit a couple shots and felt good, so I hit a couple more, and guys responded well from me leading like that and they started to make shots."
That included Finn, who swished a buzzer-beating shot from just beyond midcourt for a 34-33 Xavier lead at halftime.
"We practice that during contests before all the games, halfcourt shots, just joking around a little bit," said Finn, who finished with a career-high 22 points on 6 of 9 shooting, 5 of 7 on 3-pointers.
"When he hit that shot, I thought, "It's going to be a long night,' " Mississippi State senior point guard Timmy Bowers said. "That just gave them a little momentum."
And a lot more confidence.
Across the board.
The Musketeers not only continued to bottle up Bulldogs star forward Lawrence Roberts (11 points) on defense, but crisply and precisely moved the ball on offense, finding the open man. Any man was a good option.
With his team leading 55-53 midway through the second half, freshman forward Justin Doellman, fresh off a turnover and foul in the backcourt that led to a three-point play, sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a conventional three-point play to give Xavier a 64-54 lead with 8:46 left. For the game, the Musketeers hit a season-best 13 of 19 3s and at one stretch were 10-for-10.
Mississippi State (26-4), whose only previous losses were to Kentucky, Alabama and Vanderbilt by a combined nine points, never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
"I don't know if anybody in the country could have beaten Xavier today," coach Rick Stansbury said. "I just told Thad he's the best team we've played this year, hands down. ... They shoot half that way, they can win a national championship."
