With 6:09 to play, Marquette looked like it was on its way to cruising into the holidays with an undefeated conference record and back-to-back wins.
Despite a lackluster offensive first-half, the Golden Eagles had grinded their way to a 63-50 lead.
Then, the offense went stagnant — with Kam Jones on the floor this time too.
In the Golden Eagles’ previous two road games, it had been foul trouble that sidelined Jones and left their offense without any answers. Saturday afternoon though, even with Jones on the floor, the Golden Eagles couldn’t buy a bucket for several minutes — which ultimately put a once-looking surefire win in serious jeopardy.
Jerome Hunter knocked down a pair of free throws with 5:59 to play to cut the Golden Eagles lead to 11. Then, Dailyn Swain hit two free throws of his own, and Marquette’s lead was just nine.
Two minutes later, Hunter pulled down an offensive rebound and put it back up, and all a sudden Xavier was down just one.
After a turnover and a missed 3-pointer on consecutive possessions from the Golden Eagles, Hunter cashed in on another second chance opportunity as the Musketeers pulled ahead 64-63 — their first lead since the game was 17-16 in the first half. The layup was part of a 14-2 run.
After that, baskets from Jones, David Joplin and Jones again helped seal the deal for Marquette (11-2, 2-0 Big East), who took down Xavier (8-5, 0-2 Big East) 72-70 at Cintas Center Saturday afternoon.
Joplin finished with 19 points and five rebounds — while also becoming the 54th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points with a layup early in the second half.
“Any time you have someone that’s scored over 1,000 points at the same school, you’re just grateful that he’s been around that long,” Smart said after the game. “And we got two-thirds of our season left with him.”
After scoring just five points at halftime, Joplin tied Jones for the highest second-half scoring mark for the Golden Eagles. The duo had 15 a piece in the second period, effectively putting the offensive attack on their back en route to Marquette’s first road win since Nov. 15 at Maryland.
Jones finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-20 shooting. The senior guard passed former Marquette greats Dean Meminger, Damon Key and Darius Johnson-Odom Saturday on his way to 12th place on the all-time MU scoring list.
The Golden Eagles now get 10 days of rest before its off to Providence for a New Year’s Eve clash with the Friars (7-6, 1-1 Big East). Marquette will seek its first win at the ‘AMP’ (Amica Mutual Pavilion) since Jan. 2020. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. CST.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
