ORLANDO, FLORIDA - Lionel Chalmers scored a career-high 31 points and Dedrick Finn added 22 Sunday, helping seventh-seeded Xavier upset Southeastern Conference regular-season champion Mississippi State 89-74 to reach the semifinals of the Atlanta Regional.<br>
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Finn's shot from beyond midcourt put Xavier (25-10) ahead for good at the first-half buzzer. Chalmers, Anthony Myles and Romain Sato made sure the second-seeded Bulldogs never led again.<br>
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Xavier, which has won 15 of 16 games after a 10-9 start, advanced beyond the second round for the first time since 1990. The Atlantic 10 Conference tournament champs will face No. 3 seed Texas in the regional semifinals.<br>
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Chalmers made 11 of 13 shots, including all four of his 3-point attempts. Finn was 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, while Sato - the Musketeers' leading scorer during the regular season - scored 12 and Myles finished with 14 rebounds.<br>
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Mississippi State (26-4) shot 36 percent and lost control of the game after building a 23-13 lead in the first 11 minutes. Xavier finished the half with a 21-10 run with Chalmers scoring 12 in that stretch.<br>
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Shane Power led Mississippi State with 16 points. Timmy Bowers had 15, while SEC player of the year Lawrence Roberts was limited to 11 on 4-for-11 shooting.<br>
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Xavier's late-season surge included a 20-point blowout of then top-ranked Saint Joseph's, while Mississippi State earned its No. 2 seeding based on winning its first outright SEC regular season title in 41 years.<br>
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Sato was held to a season-low seven points in Xavier's 82-70 regular-season loss to Mississippi State three months ago, and the 6-foot-5 guard only scored six in a December 2002 loss to the Bulldogs at Madison Square Garden.<br>
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A key element of Mississippi State's game plan again was containing Sato. But in doing that, the Bulldogs were unable to keep up with the lightning-quick Chalmers, who repeatedly knifed his way through the defense to score or set up opportunities for teammates.<br>
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The 6-foot point guard was equally effective from the perimeter, finishing 6-of-7 from the field and making a pair of 3-pointers over taller defenders during the first-half run that got the Musketeers back into the game.<br>
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Finn's buzzer-beater put Xavier ahead 34-33 at the half and set the tone for the rest of the game.<br>
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The Musketeers returned from the locker room to gradually build the lead with 10 on Justin Doellman's 3-pointer with just under nine minutes to go. Six minutes later, Finn's long 3 - his fifth of the game - made it 75-63 and took the last bit of fight out of the Bulldogs.
