PITTSBURGH, PA --- The Xavier Musketeers, 15-3 overall and 6-1 in the Atlantic 10 Conference, regained a share of the A-10 lead with an impressive 81-48 bashing of Duquesne on Saturday at DU’s Palumbo Center. XU is now tied with Massachusetts and St. Joseph’s atop the Atlantic 10 Conference standings. The win for Xavier, 4-0 on the road in the A-10 this season, was its sixth straight win on an opponent home court. The streak is just one shy of the school record seven-game streak set in the 1987-88 season.

Duquesne put up a fight early in the game, grabbing a 13-12 lead with 14:02 left in the first half. It was all Xavier after that as XU outscored DU 32-13 the rest of the half to take a 44-26 lead at halftime.

"After the first five or six minutes we really guarded well," said Xavier head coach Skip Prosser. "They (Duquesne) shoot the ball well. If we didn’t guard, we knew we would be in for a long afternoon. Collectively, we played a strong team defensive game."

Duquesne closed to within 16 points, 61-45, with 7:06 left but Xavier closed the door for good with a 13-0 run to extend the advantage to 29 points, 74-45, with 2:08 left.

Sophomore forward/center David West led the Musketeers again, hitting 7-of-10 from the field en route to 21 points to go with 12 rebounds, three assists and two blocks. The effort marked West’s sixth straight "double-double" in scoring-rebounding and his 10th in the last 12 games.

First-year sophomore guard Lionel Chalmers came up big off the bench with 15 points on the strength of 4-of-7 shooting from three-point territory."We had some great contributions off the bench from Reggie (Butler), Lionel (Chalmers) and Brandon (McIntosh)," said Prosser.

Xavier’s next game is on Tuesday night against Dayton at XU’s Cintas Center at 9:30 p.m.