Jan. 13, 2001

Box Score

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Freshman Romain Sato scored 31 points while setting a school record with eight 3-pointers and Xavier tied the school mark with 14 3s in a 99-82 victory over Rhode Island on Saturday night.

Sato, a 6-foot-4 native of the Central African Republic, bettered his career high by two points in the first half when he scored 21 as the Musketeers (12-3, 3-1 Atlantic 10) took a 55-44 lead.

He was 6-for-8 from 3-point range in the first half. He tied the school record of seven 3s - which was done three times - by hitting one with 16:15 left and then set the mark with another with 14:47 left that made it 70-53. Sato, who finished 8-for-11 from beyond the arc, entered the game averaging 10.5 points and was a team-leading 29-for-85 from 3-point range.

Xavier took its biggest lead of the game at 90-64 with 8:20 left on - what else? - a 3-pointer by Lloyd Price, the one that tied the school record set against Clemson on March 23, 1999.

The Musketeers scored the first 10 points of the game and were up 24-5 less than five minutes in. Their biggest lead of the first half was 23 points three times, the last at 48-25 with 5:49 left.

Rhode Island (4-12, 0-3) then went on a 12-0 run that was capped by a three-point play by Howard Smith with 3:57 to go.

The Rams, who have lost four straight and five of six, got within 55-46 with the first basket of the second half, but Xavier scored the next four points and they were never closer than 11 the rest of the way.

Price finished with 18 points for Xavier, which had a six-game winning streak snapped by Massachusetts in its last game, while David West and Lionel Chalmers had 17 each. The Musketeers, who came in averaging 70.7 points, finished 14-for-28 on 3-pointers and scored the most points in a game since a 106-75 victory Oregon in the third-place game of the 1999 NIT.

Zach Marbury had 25 points and 11 rebounds for the Rams, while Dinno Daniels had 21 points.