No. 7 Marquette men’s basketball (15-3, 6-1 Big East) is no longer undefeated in conference play.
It is also no longer undefeated at home, and it is no longer the owner of a six-game winning streak after Xavier (12-7, 4-4 Big East) walked into Fiserv Forum and escaped with a 59-57 win Saturday afternoon.
Here are three takeaways from the Golden Eagles’ third loss of the season:
Comeback falls short
The Golden Eagles dug themselves a deep hole in the first half.
They could not seem to put the ball in the basket, shooting just 21 percent from beyond the arc and 31 percent from the field. They finished with only 24 points at the break and headed into the locker room trailing by 11 points, which marked their largest deficit at half this season.
In the second half, Xavier’s lead grew as large as 19 points at the 14:56 mark before Marquette’s offense decided to kick it into gear. Over the next 9:51, the Golden Eagles went on an 18-8 run to cut their deficit to seven points. A 5-0 run made it a four-point game with about four minutes remaining.
“I did think our guys showed incredible character, resiliency, fight, the stubborn mentality of not giving up,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said.
While Marquette made it a two-point game and had possession with eight seconds to play, it was not able to even get a shot up as time expired and the game ended.
The Golden Eagles have been a second-half team as of late. They gave up a 23-3 run to Georgetown (Jan. 7) in the first half and finally closed the door with three minutes remaining in the final frame. Against DePaul this past Tuesday, Marquette trailed by one at half and took the game to overtime where they pulled out a win after almost blowing a 10-point lead.
But Marquette’s luck ran out Saturday afternoon.
“It felt like the way that our guys were fighting and scrapping down the stretch that we might of had it in us to go win another one when we were behind late, but that’s not a recipe long term for winning the games that we want to win,” Smart said. “We have to play better earlier in the game.”
Marquette struggles to take care of the ball
The first half was less than ideal, and the second half was not much better in terms of turnover issues for Marquette.
It came in averaging just 8.8 turnovers per game, and then the Musketeers’ defense forced the Golden Eagles to give up seven in the first frame.
“We have a lot of individual defenders that I think can do it, and I think that’s a huge component when you’re playing against Marquette,” Xavier head coach Sean Miller said. “You have to be able to guard them one-on-one off the dribble because they do such a great job at so many different places on the court exploiting that…
“Marcus Foster, Dailyn Swain, Dayvoin McKnight, I thought they did a really good job.”
Those three Musketeers combined for seven of their team’s eight steals. The Golden Eagles earned 13 turnovers by the end of it all, which tied a season-high amount.
Can’t stop, won’t stop Zach Freemantle
The Golden Eagles defeated the Musketeers by two points on the road earlier this season. But they did not face graduate student forward Zach Freemantle then due to injury.
And the Teaneck, New Jersey native led his team to victory Saturday afternoon, earning his fifth double-double of the year with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
“As an older guy, I just try to give all my guys confidence,” Freemantle said. “Obviously, they’re a very highly ranked team. We knew we were coming into a sold-out crowd, so I just want to give everyone confidence to let them know that we’re here to win. We’re not here to play. We’re not here to just see what happens, we’re here to win.”
Smart said Freemantle’s presence in this game made a stark difference compared to Marquette’s first matchup against Xavier.
“He just has a poise about him,” Smart said. “I give him a lot of credit because it is not easy to sustain another injury and be out and then come back and try to find your rhythm, but he’s done that in short order.
“He’s done that really fast. The best way I can put it is they look like a completely different team from a confidence standpoint with him out there on the floor compared to without him.”
This story was written by Kaylynn Wright. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @KaylynnWrightMU.
