Musketeers Beat: Musketeers Find A Way To Hold On Against Marquette With ‘Phenomenal’ Offense, And Despite ‘Trainwreck’ Defense

CINCINNATI — There was a moment Saturday when it felt like this was going to be another one of those games that got away from the Musketeers.

Ben Gold’s dunk with 7:27 left cut what was once a 21-point first-half Xavier lead down to three, 72-69. The nervousness was palpable inside Cintas. Most of the fans inside the building were all too aware that Xavier had blown a 16-point lead against St. John’s on Jan. 24 and lost 88-83. Now, Marquette a team that already had registered one of three one-point wins over Xavier this season, was making its charge.

Richard Pitino knew his team would simply outscore the Golden Eagles because his “train wreck” defense wasn’t going to be able to slow down Nigel James Jr. and Marquette.

Fortunately, Pitino could rely on his two New Mexico transfers from last season.

Jovan Milicevic had 23 points and Filip Borovićanin added 15 points and 11 rebounds as Xavier held off a furious rally from Marquette to post a 96-88 win in Big East play Saturday in Cincinnati.

All Wright scored 16 of his 19 points in the first half for Xavier (13-12, 5-9), which won for just the second time in seven games.

Nigel James Jr. poured in a game-high 30 points and had 12 assists while Royce Parham added 24 points and 10 rebounds for Marquette (9-17, 4-11), which rallied within three but couldn’t overcome a pair of 21-point first half deficits. The Golden Eagles fell to 0-10 on the road this season.

Xavier came out scorching hot from beyond the arc. All five starters knocked down at least one 3-pointer in the opening six minutes as the Musketeers opened the game 8-for-12 from beyond the arc. Xavier finished the first half with 11 threes as the Musketeers built a pair of 21-point leads at 43-22 and 46-25 with 4:25 left in the first half.

Leading the onslaught was All Wright, who had 16 points in the first half, including 3-for-5 from beyond the arc. Jovan Milicevic chipped in with 13 in the opening 20 minutes, including a put-back at the halftime buzzer that gave Xavier a 51-35 lead at the break.

When Marquette was able to trim the Xavier lead down to three with 7:28 remaining, it was Malik Messina-Moore who answered with a three to push the lead by to seven, stopping a 11-2 run by the Golden Eagles. With the lead down to four, Milicevic and Borovicanin drained back-to-back threes to push the lead back to 10, 83-73, with 4:19 left.

“Offensively we were phenomenal. Defensively we were an absolute trainwreck,” Pitino said. “Marquette’s been playing very well. We beat a very good team, a very talented team and a well-coached team. They (Marquette) were getting the switches, and they were burning us on them. We just couldn’t contain the basketball.”

Indeed, Marquette coach Shaka Smart had patiently waited for his team to start draining their threes and for Xavier to cool off. Xavier had just five 3-pointers in the second half compared to the 11 in the opening 20 minutes.

For the second time in two home games, Xavier had no timeouts remaining with 13 minutes left in the game. This time is was Borovincanin burning the final timeout with 13:38 left when he couldn’t get the ball inbounds against Marquette pressure.

“Filip keeps using all my timeouts. If he does it one more time, I’m gonna kick him off the team,” Pitino said only partly tongue-in-cheek.

The game didn’t start off as nervously as it ended as Xavier wasted little time taking control of the game, using a 19-4 spurt to take an early 28-10 lead. The Musketeers had 16 assists on 19 made field goals in the first half while taking advantage of seven Marquette turnovers.

For Marquette, Ben Gold came out in the opening minute of the game after re-aggravating an ankle injury that had been hobbling him for the last month. He returned to the game after getting the ankle taped but could not keep Xavier from dominating in the first half.

It was Gold’s put-back dunk in the final minute on Jan. 7 in Milwaukee that gave Marquette a 66-65 win, one of three one-point losses this season for Xavier.

The steadily improving Villanova Wildcats (20-5, 11-3) visit Cintas Tuesday night for a 6:30 p.m. ET tip.