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The Marquette Golden Eagles flashed the offensive spurts that have made them so dangerous when they’re clicking on Wednesday night. In a pivotal matchup with the Xavier Musketeers, it was Marquette who spoiled the ‘Senior Night’ festivities for the X-Men, as the Golden Eagles dang-near boatraced the opposition, winning 95-84 to improve to 18-11 on the year
Xavier, who fall to 18-12 on the season, are in the midst of their worst stretch in decades. The 1981-82 Musketeers had a seven-game losing streak and X is teeter-tottering around the mark now as they’ve lost six straight with their last win coming on February 8 against, coincidentally, DePaul.
The name of the game for Marquette was 3-point shooting. The Golden Eagles were prodigious and prolific from deep on Wednesday night in Cincinnati. They put up a ridiculous mark of 60.0 percent (12-21 3PT FG) with five players making at least two 3-pointers. Andrew Rowsey shot 3-for-5 from long range, while fellow starters Markus Howard and Sam Hauser complemented him with marks of 2-for-3 and 2-for-5. Katin Reinhardt came off the bench shooting 3-for-4 from the 3-point arc and Jajuan Johnson converted on two of his four 3-point attempts.
Wednesday’s tally of 57.1 percent from the 3-point line marked the fifth time that MU has shot 50 percent or better from that distance. Only once before had the Golden Eagles put up a mark of 60 percent or better, doing so in a February 4 win over the aforementioned Blue Demons where they shot 63.6 percent. Marquette came awfully close to say the least to making it two.
On the flip side, it’s the worst mark allowed by the Musketeers by multiple furlongs. Similarly, on February 4, the Creighton Bluejays shot 46.4 percent from the 3-point line. X would probably love to have only allowed a percentage like that on Wednesday night, we’d guess.
Additionally, Marquette made some history as the 95 points scored against Xavier were the most by any opponent inside Cintas Center since the arena’s opening in the year 2000.
Four Musketeers were able to get into double figures (Maybe they didn’t win because they didn’t stay on brand. ‘3 Musketeers,’ you know? Good chocolate bar too) in the loss. Malcolm Bernard scored 13, Trevon Bluiett dropped 15, RaShid Gaston had 16 and J.P. Macura led the way with 20 points of his own. Everyone else shared something in common: They all scored five points. Yay for consistency?
The Golden Eagles look to finish out the season on a high note when they welcome Creighton to Milwaukee on Saturday. Xavier meanwhile looks to end this skid and avoid matching the aforementioned seven-game losing streak they had in the 1981-82 season when they meet the Blue Demons in Rosemont.