By Spencer Tracy, Staff Writer 

The Xavier men’s basketball team had a strong week at home, beating the Villanova Wildcats at home before hitting the road to play the Marquette Golden Eagles and coming away with a two point win. 

The Wildcats had nearly killed their program’s reputation after previous Villanova coach Jay Wright left after losing to Columbia by 10 at home earlier in the season. Now, Villanova rides a hot hand with just two losses since Nov. 25, including major wins over UConn and the University of Cincinnati.   

In a three-point game with 1:40 remaining, the Xavier fan base looked to cure a headache from a season cursed with failed execution in close games by mounting a comeback against the Wildcats. Head coach Sean Miller called upon junior guard Ryan Conwell to take the game-altering shot. Over two Villanova defenders and drawing contact, Conwell sunk the and-one three-point shot for the lead. 

Less than a minute later, Conwell was left open at the same spot, splashing another three that shook the foundation of Cintas with the energy from the crowd. Conwell scored 13 of the last 14 points for Xavier, finishing with a career high 34 points behind a season-high six threes. 

“There’s no doubt in my mind that if our students weren’t here, we may have not won,” Miller said. “We’ve missed them in some games we haven’t played well, they inspire our group.”  

At this point, the question was: Can this team stay inspired without their electrifying crowd when they travel north to face No. 7 Marquette? The answer was an astounding yes.  

The first half against Marquette was the best half of basketball the Muskies have played all year. The Marquette fanbase and their head coach, Shaka Smart, witnessed a Miller coaching masterclass front and center. 

The game plan was executed by seamlessly eliminating Marquette star Kam Jones from the offense, holding him to 11 points on 38% shooting. The formula was simple: allowing any Marquette player not named Jones to score by collapsing the defense wherever he went to the hoop. That would have been an impossible task without the defensive efforts from sophomore forward Dailyn Swain and senior guard Dayvion McKnight. Neither Swain nor McKnight lit up the box score, but their defensive energy spoke volumes to the Xavier win. 

The second half was a different story for the Musketeers. Over the second half, the Musketeers had a 19-point lead at one point, but this dwindled down into a one-possession game for the closing minutes. This was a scenario they had faced before, but were often unsuccessful in pulling off a win. With no student section and no Cintas to have their back, it was questionable how the group would respond. 

With 12 seconds remaining, the Musketeers were up two points. A juggled inbound pass to Conwell resulted in a jump ball, giving the Golden Eagles the ball with six seconds remaining. Smart called for the ball to get to Jones’ hands, but Miller’s defense immediately doubled up on him, forcing a panicked pass that was deflected by Swain, causing offensive chaos. A last-second drive by Marquette senior guard Stevie Mitchell was broken up by Swain again, and the Musketeers held on for the 59-57 win. 

Xavier hopes to ride this momentum for their road game against St. Johns tonight, who visited Cintas and handed the Musketeers a loss earlier this month, and extend their three-game winning streak. A win against the Red Hawks would bring much-needed energy to Cintas for a matchup against the two-time national champions UConn this Saturday.