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Raymond, Xavier clip Flyers

Mar 6, 2009 - 5:58 AM CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- B.J. Raymond celebrated his senior night with 14 points to lead No. 18 Xavier to a 76-59 win over Dayton on Thursday.

Dante Jackson added 14 points and Derrick Brown collected 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Musketeers, who moved into sole possession of first place in the Atlantic 10.

Xavier (23-5, 11-3 Atlantic 10) clinched the outright regular-season crown and the No. 1 seed in the A-10 tournament.

"We never like to lose," Raymond said. "We got into it a little bit with them. It gave us a lot more energy and we just wanted to show them we were ready."

The Musketeers set the pace in the first half with a strong defensive effort, holding the Flyers (24-6, 10-5) to 37 percent (11-of-30) shooting en route to a 40-27 lead at the break.

Jackson took over at the start, scoring Xavier's first 11 points to grab the lead. Jackson knocked down three 3-pointers in that stretch and finished the contest 4-of-7 from the floor.

Raymond scored 12 points in the second half before being lifted to a standing ovation from the home crowd in the final minutes.

"There was an electric atmosphere tonight on senior night," Xavier coach Sean Miller said. "I don't know if it was our team that fed off the crowd or if the crowd fed off our team's energy. We struggled on offense some tonight, but not just because of us. Dayton's a terrific team.

"There are not two tougher guys or two guys with bigger hearts (than C.J. Anderson and B.J. Raymond). Think of our great tradition here the last 25 years. There has never been a player who won more games than B.J."

Marcus Johnson scored 19 points for Dayton, which has not won here since 1981 - absorbing 24 straight losses.

"The last three minutes we took quick shots, bad shots, and they came down and made shots on the other end," Dayton coach Brian Gregory said. "They played well. It would be great if we got to play again."