The Quick and Dirty: Xavier 64, Marquette 44

A quick start wasn't nearly enough for YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles tonight, as the deeper, stronger Musketeers of Xavier overwhelmed and overpowered a Matt Carlino-less MU squad over the final 30 minutes of the game en route to a 64-44 win at the Bradley Center.

For the second straight game, Marquette came out guns-ablazin' without its concussed leading scorer, using three bunnies from Luke Fischer and 6 points from Juan Anderson to jump out to an early 16-5 lead. Five Xavier turnovers in the first 8 minutes of the game certainly didn't hurt things, and the only points Xavier could manage in that frame were a 3-pointer from Trevon Bluiett and a lay-in from Jalen Reynolds. But then J.P. Macura put home a triple, and then Remy Abell did, too, and then Macura hit another and suddenly Marquette's lead was gone and it was a 19-19 game with 5:46 left in the half. MU could muster just 3 total points between the 12:34 mark and the 2:28 mark of the first half, and 3s from Duane Wilson and Anderson in the last 2 minutes kept things from getting really ugly. At the half, Xavier was up 28-25.

A quick 8-0 run to open the second half (featuring 4 points each from Bluiett and Myles Davis) gave X an 11-point lead before the home faithful could return to their seats, and things spiraled out of control from there. Coach Wojo got hit with a technical protesting a preposterous over-the-back call on Fischer, Macura stretched Xavier's advantage to 16 with a personal 5-0 run of his own, and future rec league star Matt Stainbrook bulldozed his way to a 13-point, 6-rebound night. The closest Marquette would get was 52-40 after Du. Wilson's 3-pointer with 5 minutes left, but the X-Men ended the game on yet another run -- this one 12-4 -- to balloon the final margin to 20.

Duane Wilson had 12 points to lead MU but needed 12 attempts from the field to get there. Anderson finished with 11 (but had only 2 in the second half) and snagged 9 boards. For Xavier, Bluiett led all scorers with 14 on 5-9 shooting from the floor.

With the loss, Marquette falls to 11-13 on the year and a frightful 3-9 in conference play. Xavier improves its resume to 16-9 overall and 7-6 in the Big East. And Stainbrook can leave any time now.

Until we make our way to Runza-land on Saturday, then, this is your post-game dejection thread.