Xavier Basketball: Musketeers get hard-fought win on the road over Marquette

After getting swept in the regular season by Marquette last season, Xavier basketball got revenge with a road victory to start this Big East season.

Marquette, a team known for its great offense, needed three whole minutes to get on the scoreboard in this game. This was broken by an Andrew Rousey three. He didn’t stay on the court long though, picking up two early fouls in the first five minutes. Markus Howard, who averages over 21 ppg, immediately took over, making the next two baskets for the Golden Eagles.

On the Xavier side, Tyrique Jones led the Musketeers early on, getting eight of the team’s first 10 points. But Marquette made a run of their own with Jamal Cain hitting a pair of free throws to take a 17-15 lead.

The next few minutes exhibited some sloppy basketball by both teams, with turnovers and bad shots all around. There also was a good number of fouls, with Xavier, the top foul shooting team in the Big East coming in, in the bonus with almost nine minutes to go.

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One player who made an impact early without scoring was Harry Froling, a transfer from SMU that has been eligible for just over a week. He played good defense and caused some turnovers as well.

Head coach for Xavier Chris Mack deployed a 1-3-1 defensive zone, designed to stop Rousey and Howard from going off. The consequence was that it left some role players wide open for three. Of course, it still didn’t stop the senior guard Rowsey from nailing back-to-back threes to recapture the 39-38 lead for the Eagles.

JP Macura hit a floater to put Xavier up 42-39 but didn’t get the foul call on a drive to the basket with seconds to go. It was the end of a frustrating first 20 minutes for Macura, who had four first-half points on 1/5 shooting. Trevon Bluiett led the Musketeers with 11 points at the half.

In the second half, Rowsey continued his scoring with a layup followed by a three-pointer after Xavier failed on multiple occasions to secure a defensive rebound.

Things started getting testy then, as Rowsey took a blocking foul by Macura, and as the Musketeer guard stood over Rowsey, Froling pushed him to the ground (little acting might’ve been involved). Froling received a dead ball technical foul on the play.

Since the first couple of minutes in the game, the point difference never got past five points from either team, but Marquette had plenty of chances in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Golden Eagles dominated for a good while, getting a number of offensive boards. But they couldn’t capitalize, keeping the Musketeers around.

Things got even scarier for Marquette as Rowsey fouled Xavier’s Naji Marshall on a three-point play, sending him to the bench with his fourth foul. Even without the second leading scorer for Marquette, the team was able to stay right in it thanks to role players like Cain, who had 16 in the game.

Xavier started to take control, though, with a Macura three followed by a drive and score by freshman Paul Scruggs to give the Musketeers a 72-65 lead, their largest since the opening minutes. But Marquette refused to go away, as back-to-back threes and a Froling free thrown made it a 74-72 game.

The game was then tied at 80 after a pair of deep treys from Rowsey, but a Macura drive reclaimed the lead for Xavier with just under two minutes to go. The dagger came after a loose ball on the floor that made it’s way to Kaiser Gates, who hit his second three of the game to push the Xavier lead to five.

Down three with under a minute to go, Rowsey had a chance to tie it up with a three, then had another shot after the ball bounced back to him, but missed the floater as well. After a scramble for the ball, Xavier got possession after it went out of bounds.

With the Musketeers being one of the best free throw shooting teams in the country, their late lead was always going to be tough to overcome and Marquette faltered at the end, losing 91-87.

Rowsey led all scorers with 31 points, shooting 11/24 (6/17 from 3) from the field. Howard struggled from the field, shooting 6/19 for just 13 points. Bluiett had 23 to lead Xavier, followed by Macura’s 15, one of five players in double-figures.

For Marquette, they did what they wanted to accomplish on offense, hitting 15 three-pointers. But between poor transition defense and Xavier going 22-24 from the charity stripe, it was just too much to overcome.

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Xavier is off to a good start after getting a tough road win and will get to go back home and face a DePaul team that just gave up 100 points to top-ranked Villanova. Marquette, meanwhile, will remain at home and take on a Georgetown team that suffered a heartbreaking double-overtime loss at the hands of Butler.

Xavier’s next game: Sat, Dec. 30 vs. DePaul

Marquette’s next game: Sat, Dec. 30 vs. Georgetown