Marquette Golden Eagles had to play catch up in the second half for the nth time after another slow start but this time, against the Xavier University Musketeers, they ran out of time and lost.
The Golden Eagles trailed by 11 points in the halftime against the visiting Musketeers but they were able to chip the lead little by little. Alas, the game finished with them needing one more shot to either tie or win but they were unable to make one and then the final buzzer sounded.
Despite the loss, head coach Shaka Smart sees positives from his players.
“I did think our guys showed incredible character, resilency, fight, the stubborn mentality of not giving up,” he said post game.
The Golden Eagles were trailing by six points entering the last two minutes, 57-51.
Marquette Golden Eagles’ last shot
While their shots were not falling early on, Smart’s squad relied on their tremendous defense to keep the game close.
Xavier was unable to make a field goal starting from 2:09 mark of the second half. Marquette got one lay-up from David Joplin and two from Kam Jones to cut the lead to two with 12 seconds remaining.
They were able to force a turnover with 8 seconds left but they could not get a shot off.
Smart explained that they were confused because they did not know where they would inbound the ball.
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. 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.
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