No. 7 Marquette basketball saw its six-game win streak end on Saturday, as the Golden Eagles fell prey to the Xavier Musketeers, 59-57, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. The Golden Eagles still had a shot at at least tying the game and forcing overtime late in the contest, but they failed to execute on offense after forcing a turnover while they were down by two points with still eight seconds left in the second half.
“Honestly, we had a play design and then they moved the location of the ball,” Smart shared after the game (h/t Ben Steele of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). “Basketball has gotten to the point where there’s these unofficial timeouts, where there’s reviews or for whatever reason stuff is not happening.”
“When that happened, the official was standing in the corner with the ball so we had something we were going to do that we practice,” continued Smart. “Then they moved it to the normal 28-foot marker (on the sideline) and we didn’t have time to adjust. We didn’t have a timeout.”
Marquette basketball failed to get off a shot in doomed final possession vs. Xavier
Marquette basketball got the ball to the hands of Kam Jones off the inbound pass after a defensive stop late in the contest. Xavier forced Jones to pass the ball, which was deflected and landed in the hands of Stevie Mitchell, who tried to attack the basket but lost possession of the leather as time expired.
Xavier hangs on and pulls off the upset over No. 7 Marquette 💪 😱 pic.twitter.com/rD5k1vyFvQ
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) January 18, 2025
The loss to Xavier dropped Marquette to 15-3 overall. It was also the Golden Eagles’ first defeat in Big East play.
Marquette basketball can bounce back from that defeat as soon as this coming Tuesday when the Golden Eagles take on the Seton Hall Pirates at Prudential Center in New Jersey.
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