Struggling Marquette will hope to continue its strong play at home when it hosts Creighton in a Big East matchup on Tuesday in Milwaukee.
The Golden Eagles (7-14, 2-8 Big East), who have recorded all seven of their wins at home, dropped an 87-76 decision at Butler on Friday.
Creighton (12-8, 6-3) rallied for a 94-93 home victory over Xavier on Wednesday. Austin Swartz hit a free throw with 4.3 seconds remaining, rebounded his miss on his second attempt and banked in the game-winning shot just before the buzzer.
“If I make it through this season with this group, it’s going to be a miracle,” Bluejays coach Greg McDermott said afterward. “We were obviously fortunate.”
Against Xavier, Creighton received 40 points from its bench players compared to just 13 for the Musketeers. Starter Josh Dix had a team-high 19 points, but Nik Graves contributed 16 off the bench and Fedor Zugic added 11. Graves also had nine assists and no turnovers.
Dix averages 12.8 points, Swartz 11.6 and Jasen Green 10.8 points and a team-high 5.1 rebounds. Green left the Xavier game after 14 minutes with a shoulder injury, however.
Creighton averages 79.0 points per game and allows 74.3. In splitting their last four games, the Bluejays gave up 89.8 points per contest.
“This team’s got a long ways to go defensively,” McDermott said. “Let’s be honest, we can’t stop anybody right now. We’ve got to try to solve that problem.”
Creighton is 9-2 at home but just 3-6 on the road or at neutral sites. The Bluejays have not won two consecutive contests since a four-game winning streak to close out December.
Marquette has lost four of its last five games and 10 of its last 12.
The Golden Eagles had a 31-29 advantage in field goals against Butler, but the Bulldogs held a 23-9 edge from the free-throw line. Marquette attempted just five free throws in the second half.
The Golden Eagles also were just 5 of 27 from 3-point range.
“We didn’t have quite enough defensive connectivity to win this game,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said. “We are improving in that way, but there’s also all the basketball factors where Butler was just a little bit better than us.”
Chase Ross averages 15.6 points and freshman Nigel James Jr. adds 15.1. Ben Gold contributes a team-best 5.7 boards.
Marquette is shooting just 42.2% from the floor, including 30.3% beyond the arc, both last in the Big East.
Creighton recorded an 84-63 victory on Dec. 20 in the first meeting between the teams, as Marquette shot just 34.4%.
–Field Level Media
