No. 10 Marquette was knocked off its perch atop the Big East standings when Xavier ended the Golden Eagles’ six-game winning streak Saturday.
The Golden Eagles will try to carry lessons learned from that loss when they travel to Newark, N.J., to face woeful Seton Hall on Tuesday.
Marquette (15-3, 6-1 Big East) had its worst offensive output of the season in a 59-57 home loss to Xavier. Later in the day, St. John’s passed Marquette by a half-game for the conference lead when it beat Seton Hall (6-12, 1-6) in an easy 79-51 victory.
Shaka Smart’s Golden Eagles trailed 35-24 at halftime and by 19 points early in the second half before snapping into action. David Joplin powered the comeback effort with 12 of his 18 points in the second half.
“I don’t know that anyone on our team had their best game,” Smart said. “That’s what happens when you score 57 points, or maybe it’s the other way around. But I thought particularly those five (starting) guys, and even the guys that came off the bench showed, I mean, that’s who we are. That’s what we’re about.”
Marquette’s 27.6 percent rate from 3-point range was its second worst of the season. They had made 11, 11, nine and 13 3-pointers in successive games before settling for eight makes on 29 shots against the Musketeers.
The Golden Eagles’ defense is powered by turnovers — they are tied for fifth in Division I at 10.2 steals per game. Xavier made sure to guard against that, allowing just six thefts. In Marquette’s three losses (to Iowa State, Dayton and Xavier), it has posted its lowest steal totals of the season (four, two and six).
Yet Marquette still managed to cut the deficit to four points with 4:06 to play and to two points with 12 seconds on the clock. Top scorer Kam Jones (19.1 points per game) made the final basket of the game but was held to 11 total points.
“Now we need to understand that to start the game, whether it’s because we have Marquette on our jersey or whether it’s because of what our guys have done earlier in the season, teams are going to have a burning desire,” Smart said. “I mean they’re going to come in here with their hair on fire, or if we go to their place, they’re going to have their hair on fire.”
The next place they’re going into belongs to Seton Hall, which is muddling through its toughest season in recent memory.
The Pirates’ home loss to St. John’s marked their eighth defeat in nine games. It also stung more because former Pirates guard Kadary Richmond faced them in a St. John’s uniform for the first time and contributed 12 points, five rebounds and six assists in the Red Storm’s easy win.
Seton Hall missed 20 of its first 21 attempts from the field and shot an abysmal 4-for-30 in the first half to trail 39-16.
Coach Shaheen Holloway said postgame his team needs to experience the feelings Sunday and Monday to prepare for the road ahead.
“I don’t want them to have this feeling again,” Holloway said. “We got embarrassed at home, we got outplayed, out-everything, and it’s a terrible feeling. But we gotta bounce back. We got the (No. 10) team in the country coming in on Tuesday. We can’t have another repeat play like this.”
Isaiah Coleman (15.2 points) was the Pirates’ lone scorer to broach double digits Saturday. He scored 11 on 1-for-13 shooting from the floor.
No. 2 scorer Chaunce Jenkins (11.4) left with an apparent lower-body injury late in the first half, and veteran guard and No. 3 scorer Dylan Addae-Wusu (9.9) sat out his second straight contest with a foot sprain. Holloway did not have a timetable for his recovery.
