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No. 12 Xavier rolls to A-10 crown
Updated: Monday March 05, 2001 8:04 PM
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- In a battle between the top two teams in the Atlantic 10, it wasn't even close. No. 12 Xavier dominated from start to finish to gain its second consecutive conference title with an 81-56 rout over George Washington on Monday. "What you saw there was one of the most explosive teams in the country," George Washington coach Joe McKeown said. "We can be pretty explosive too, but we just couldn't get anything going tonight. Give them a lot of credit." Reetta Piipari matched a career-high with 20 points, including six 3-pointers which tied a title game record, for the Musketeers (28-2), who beat the Colonials last season as well and won the third conference title in their history, also taking the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Championship in 1993. "We were mentally focused and ready at the start of the game," Musketeers coach Melanie Balcomb said. "We tried to picture this all year. 'We weren't aggressive on defense and our shots weren't falling.'" The offensive surge continued in the second half and the Musketeers led by as many as 28. Notes: In addition to Phillips, the all-tournament team consisted
of Piipari and Tuukkanen along with George Washington's Kristeena
Alexander and Vishniakova. ...Phillips is the first player since
1996 to win both the regular-season MVP and the tournament MVP
awards. ...Partly because of a forecasted snowstorm in Philadelphia
and the lack of a local team in the game, the attendance was just
566 for the finals.
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