Xavier downs Marquette for much-needed road win

MILWAUKEE – Xavier doubled its Big East road win total Tuesday by thumping short-handed Marquette 64-44 at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

The Musketeers started the second half on an 8-0 tear, bolstered by Myles Davis' two free throws from Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski's technical foul, and held on for a second road victory in conference action. Xavier's 28-25 halftime lead ballooned to as many as 20 points.

It was, for Xavier, a must-win. A loss to the Golden Eagles – ranked 114th in the NCAA Daily RPI and second-to-last in the Big East standings – would have been disastrous for its NCAA tournament resume.

Box score: Xavier 64, Marquette 44

But Trevon Bluiett scored 14 points, Matt Stainbrook emerged from a recent funk to score 13 points with six rebounds, J.P. Macura added 11 points and Myles Davis chipped in 10 to buoy the Musketeers (16-9, 7-6 Big East). Jalen Reynolds added a team-best nine rebounds and two blocks.

"It was huge. I think it's going to give us a lot of momentum," Stainbrook said. "We've got a big game Saturday versus St. John's, and I think this sort of showed how deep we are and how much we rely on everyone."

Down to seven scholarship players, Marquette (11-13, 3-9) went a second straight game without scoring leader Matt Carlino. The senior suffered a concussion last week at Villanova and was not in the building for the Xavier outing, just weeks after he scored 27 points against the Musketeers.

The Golden Eagles initially persevered without their star. They flustered Xavier with pressure and jumped ahead 16-5 by converting turnovers to points and pounding the ball inside. Luke Fischer led the way with six of those points.

"All we talked about was taking care of the ball coming into the game, and that was sort of our undoing the first four minutes," Xavier head coach Chris Mack said. "But as time wore on, I thought our guys settled in. We didn't panic. We didn't fracture. We stayed the course."

Macura buried a 3-pointer that jump-started Xavier's offense. The trey started a 9-0 run that brought the Musketeers within two.

The Musketeers' 1-3-1 zone defense forced seven first-half turnovers and ensured the lead for the last five minutes of the half. Although XU led by as many as six points before the break, Juan Anderson drilled a 3-pointer with one second left to narrow the gap to three.

The second-half start really separated the teams. Marquette was held scoreless for nearly four minutes until Jajuan Johnson delivered a jumper.

Johnson was among the Golden Eagles' top scorers, finishing with nine points. The 6-foot-5 sophomore was benched for the first Xavier game because of poor practices but played well in Carlino's absence at Seton Hall and tried to bridge the gap again versus the Musketeers.

It just wasn't enough against a Xavier team with so many options.

"We have a very thin margin of error with Matt," Wojciechowski said. "In Big East play he's averaging what, 17, 18 points a game. So we do miss him. We miss him and especially on nights like this when they're a very pack-the-paint (team). I thought we executed what we wanted to do early. Obviously they adjusted to take the paint away from us. We weren't able to counter that."

Mack turned to Sean O'Mara early in the game, making good on his promise to play the freshman more based on his hard work at practice. Junior James Farr remained on the bench until 12:30 remained in the outing and guard Brandon Randolph did not play for a second straight game.

A Bluiett 3-pointer gave XU a 17-point lead with seven-plus minutes left and the outcome was well in hand. Marquette chipped away at the lead, inching within 12 on a Duane Wilson trey, but Xavier was never seriously challenged thereafter.

Mack said the zone defense took time off the clock in the second half, forced some of Marquette's looks and allowed the Musketeers to create turnovers.

As fans headed for the exits and the Musketeers polished off a second straight win, the Golden Eagles absorbed a seventh loss in eight outings.