Wednesday night was nearly Marquette men’s basketball’s magnum opus of misery.
When the Xavier Musketeers turned a sloppy Golden Eagles’ inbound into back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers and whittled a once-11-point deficit to just two, it felt like history was repeating itself for the seemingly umpteenth time this year.
Here was Marquette, once living lavishly with a stranglehold on the game and a win likely inbound, just for a few poor minutes to ruin all evidence of a lead and hope of a victory and keep the elusive high major victory out of reach.
But, on Wednesday in Fiserv Forum, the Golden Eagles (6-10, 1-4 Big East) broke pattern and walked off the Al McGuire Court with a win, 66-65, their first in Big East play this season.
“Our guys, they care about winning as much or more than anyone in this building tonight,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said. “And they feel the weight, when we don’t win.
“And that comes with the territory of being a basketball coach or being a basketball player at this level. I tell the guys all the time, we have to be big boys.”
Perhaps for the first time all year, the Golden Eagles were.
Xavier (9-7, 1-4) took its first lead of the night, 65-64, with 1:53 remaining, forcing Smart to call his final timeout. Gone was Marquette’s 37-27 lead at halftime. And its 53-40 lead — its largest of the night — with just under 12 minutes to go. Both were wiped away after a Malik Messina-Moore layup, two of his game-most 22 points, followed the three-straight 3s and 13-2 run.
Needing to keep his team from being on the losing side of another close game against a power conference opponent, Smart went into the timeout preaching belief — We can do it, he told them — and stops.
“We practice last minute, last three minutes of the game, where we need to get stops, we need to get scores,” sophomore forward Royce Parham said. “Basically just being solid on defense to just get a team stop for us and help us win the game.”
The Golden Eagles heeded Smart words.
With nothing to do but watch his players fight to not throw away what was once an assured victory, Smart saw them retake the lead with 48 seconds remaining thanks to a Ben Gold second-chance dunk.
Big BG dunk!
Back on top 66-65.
44.9 seconds to go. pic.twitter.com/JjV1iCJzrd
— Marquette Basketball (@MarquetteMBB) January 8, 2026
Then, he watched them hold the Musketeers scoreless for the last 2:07 and miss their final three shots after Messina-Moore’s lead-nabbing layup — in the process grabbing three rebounds, two of which came on the offensive glass.
“Guys did a great job at the very end, doing one of the most basic things that goes into winning basketball games,” Smart said, “and that’s back-to-back possessions of a score and a stop.”
It did not matter Xavier went 50% overall and 60% from beyond the arc in the second half. It did not matter the final moments included Ross missing a bunny and Gold clanking a free-throw. It did not matter Marquette’s shooting went cold, going 11-for-30 and 2-for-10 on threes in the second half.
Regardless of all that could have spelled disaster, home fans and players left Fiserv Forum with their team having won for the first time since Dec. 2.
“It’s a lot of joy. We haven’t won in a month or so,” Parham said. “It was great to just get one under our belt.”
The forgotten feeling of a Big East victory was not the only new experience for Marquette on Wednesday. The Golden Eagles ran a different starting lineup, putting Caedin Hamilton on the bench for the first time this season in place of Gold.
All five of the team’s starters — Nigel James Jr. (10 points), Chase Ross (12), Adrien Stevens (9), Parham (14) and Gold (10) — finished as their leading scorers.
“Right now, that’s our best five, and that’s who started the game tonight,” Smart said. “That’s likely who we will start again on Saturday [against Villanova].”
This story was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at jack.albright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.