Saturday night in their regular season finale, the Marquette held off a pesky Xavier club that had already beaten them once this season. In the rematch, the Golden Eagles beat the Musketeers, 66-59.
The win for the Golden Eagles is their fourth in their last five games, reversing a trend from the past two seasons where they stumbled badly from February into March.
Playing in front of 1,800 fans at Fiserv Forum for the first time this season, MU was led by D.J. Carton’s 16 points on 5-11 shooting from the field. Jamal Cain came up huge in his return to the Golden Eagles lineup, scoring 13 points and pulling down seven rebounds.
Marquette (13-12, 8-11 Big East) now moves on to the Big East tournament in New York, where they will be seeded ninth and will take on eighth-seeded Georgetown (9-12, 7-9 Big East) in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Wednesday.