It was not quite enough.
Marquette’s 26-14 run over the final 12:10. David Joplin and Kam Jones’s late layups to trim it to a single-possession game with a minute to play. The jump ball that gave MU possession with a chance to win or tie the game in the final seconds.
No. 7 Marquette men’s basketball (15-3, 6-1 Big East) was unable to recover from its largest deficit faced this season (19 points) as it dropped its first game in Big East play 59-57 to Xavier (12-7, 4-4 Big East) Saturday afternoon at Fiserv Forum.
The Golden Eagles entered Saturday averaging the fewest turnovers per game (8.8) in the entire country. In the first half, the Musketeers forced Marquette into seven giveaways.
“Xavier had a great defensive attack,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “They matched up with us completely differently than size would dictate which you know we’re starting to see that more and more.
“At times they had Dayvion McKnight — about six feet tall — guarding Ben Gold. And then they had Zach Freemantle who’s like 6’9, 6’10 guarding Stevie Mitchell for the majority of the game. That got us on our heels to some extent. We have a plan for that, but I did think their switching and their crossmatches, certainly in the first half and even at times in the second half, got us too stagnant.”
When Zach Freemantle got a layup to fall to make it 43-26, it marked the largest deficit that the Golden Eagles had faced this season. Then the lead grew to 19.
It felt like there was a lid on the basket whenever Marquette put a shot up early in the second half. MU opened the half shooting 1-for-8 from the field before Ben Gold connected on a three with 14:18 to play.
Tre Norman nailed a 3-pointer to make it an 11-point game with 10:41 to play, and then Chase Ross split a pair of free throws to make it a 10-point game. Instead of rolling over and dying, like most teams might have in their situation, the Golden Eagles continued to chip, and chip, and chip some more.
“I did think our guys showed incredible character, resiliency, fight, the stubborn mentality of not giving up,” Smart said.
Marquette chipped away at the lead when Stevie Mitchell hit a big 3-pointer with 7:30 to play and then got a little more momentum on its side when a Xavier basket was overturned to a shot clock violation. Mitchell stepped up on the other end and made it a 51-44 game with just over five minutes to play.
They chipped away at it when Jones picked a suitable time to nail his first 3-pointer of the day, drilling one with 4:06 to play to trim Marquette’s deficit to just four.
Jones — who had been one of the front runners for Big East and National player of the year for most of the season — shot 5-for-13 and 1-of-6 from deep in the loss and has now been held to under 40 percent from the field in each of the past four games.
“This is Kam Jones man, this guy is special,” Smart said. “This guy’s out of this world, but he’s also a human being and he’s feeling a lot of pressure I would imagine.
“He hasn’t verbalized that, he’s been great in practice, he’s been an A plus teammate, A plus plus, and leader. But man, it’s just a lot expected from him on his shoulders, and I think right now when he rises up from outside, he’s feeling the weight of some of that.”
But it was all for not, because Marcus Foster’s and-one bucket proved to be one of the biggest plays of the day, putting Marquette down seven with two minutes to play.
“There’s a real difference between a team that really believes and comes into this type of atmosphere and game and is here to win it,” head coach Sean Miller said. “And we were, that doesn’t mean we’re going to, but I thought the fact that we led wire to wire… says a lot about the level of play that we had.”
MU got within two points late and was able to draw a tie-up with 8.6 seconds to play.
However, the final possession of the game reflected the way the game went for the Golden Eagles on Saturday afternoon, as it was a sloppy possession in which they did not manage to get a shot up.
FINAL: MU 57, XAVIER 59#mubb had a chance to tie or win it in the final seconds of the game, but was unable to get a shot up.
A valiant comeback effort that falls just short. pic.twitter.com/me30Ltb4is
— Matthew Baltz (@MatthewBaltzMU) January 18, 2025
Joplin finished with a game-high 18 points for Marquette. Freemantle tallied his fifth double-double of the season, scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
The Golden Eagles drop their first game of the season in Big East play, and Xavier picks up it its first top 10 win since Dec. 31, 2022, when it defeated then-No. 2 UConn 83-73 at Cintas Center.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
