#MUBB Holds Off Musketeers 66-65

Leading for more than 36 minutes, a late offensive rebound and dunk from Ben Gold gave Marquette (6-10, 1-4 BIG EAST) a 66-65 win over Xavier (9-7, 1-4 BIG EAST) on Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum.

Four Golden Eagles finished in double figures with Royce Parham leading the way with 14 points to go with eight rebounds. Chase Ross had 12 points and Nigel James Jr. and Gold finished with 10 apiece.

Marquette led for nearly 19 minutes in the opening half. MU took an early six-point lead after doubling up Xavier 12-6 with a pair of triples from Damarius Owens.

A runout dunk by Chase Ross with 5:36 left capped a 6-0 spurt for the Golden Eagles. It stretched MU's advantage to eight at 24-16. Xavier once again began to chip away, closing back to within two, two-and-a-half minutes later but a 3-pointer from the left corner by Adrian Stevens extended the lead back to five. Malik Messina-Moore then answered for the Musketeers.

The Golden Eagles closed the half on an 8-0 run keyed by and-1's from Royce Parham on back-to-back trips. MU led 37-27 at the break after holding Xavier to just 25.8% shooting from the field.

Despite giving up the first four points to start the half, a 9-3 stretch to counter built the Golden Eagles' advantage back up to 12. With 11:50 on the clock, Marquette grabbed its largest lead of the game at 53-40 on a triple from Stevens, his third of the night.

That advantage disappeared during an 11-0 Musketeer run in just over a minute. Marquette maintained the lead through the next eight minutes, but going 3-of-10 from the field during that span, the visitors hung around.

A stop and layup on the break for Messina-Moore gave the Musketeers their first lead of the game at 65-64 with 2:07 to play. Following a Golden Eagle turnover, Xavier had a chance to go up three but Marquette came up with a stop.

At the other end, two missed attempts were both corralled by Marquette, the second by Gold which he went back up with a go-ahead dunk with 48 seconds remaining.

Xavier had an attempt from inside the arc with the clock winding down but the contested jumper came up short.

UP NEXT
Marquette returns to Fiserv Forum on Saturday to host Villanova. Tipoff is set for 1:30 p.m. CT and will air on truTV.

NOTABLES

Marquette outscored Xavier 38-14 in the paint.
Marquette held a 47-34 advantage on the glass.
MU's 19 offensive rebounds led to 17 second-chance points.
Nigel James Jr. had a career-high six assists.
Chase Ross finished with a career-high nine rebounds.
Guard Sean Jones missed his second-straight game with a foot injury and eighth overall this season. He was out six games with a shoulder injury earlier in the year
Forward Caedin Hamilton appeared off the bench for the first time in 2025-26, marking the team's fifth starting lineup (Gold).
Freshman Michael Phillips III finished with a personal-best five rebounds in just eight minutes.