CINCINNATI — Souley Boum and Jack Nunge each scored 16 points, and No. 12 Xavier won its 11th straight game with an 80-76 victory over No. 25 Marquette on Sunday.
The final few seconds were close, with Olivier-Maxence Prosper making a jumper to cut Xavier’s lead to 78-76 with 8 seconds left. Boum then hit two free throws to seal the victory as the Musketeers went 6 for 6 from the line in the final 28 seconds.
Six players scored in double figures for Xavier (15-3, 7-0 Big East), which is off to its best start ever in Big East play. The Musketeers’ winning streak is their longest since starting the 2015-16 season 12-0. Nunge had 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double this season and second straight.
Tyler Kolek scored 25 points and Oso Ighodaro had 14 for Marquette (14-5, 6-2 Big East), which snapped a five-game winning streak. Kolek who averages eight assists per game, dished out seven.
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After a wild first half that saw a 92 combined points scored, the second half was a grind.
The Musketeers had no answer in the first half for Kolek, who had 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting and four assists. Marquette led 48-44 at halftime.
The defenses and perhaps some fatigue showed up late in the second half with both teams going scoreless for more than six minutes. A steal and dunk by Marquette guard Chase Ross tied the score 68-68 with 3:31 remaining. But Boum answered with a 3-pointer to put the Musketeers ahead to set up a frantic finish.
ST. JOHN’S 85, NO. 6 UCONN 74: Joel Soriano scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in St. John’s win over UConn — its first victory in Hartford since 1988.
The double-double was the 16th of the season for Soriano. AJ Storr and Posh Alexander each added 14 points for the Red Storm (13-6, 3-5 Big East), which has won two in a row after a five-game losing streak. Dylan Addae-Wusu and Rafael Pinzon added 12 points each and Andre Curbelo had 10.
Jordan Hawkins led all scorers with 29 for UConn (15-4, 4-4 Big East), which has lost four of its last five games after starting the season 14-0. Alex Karaban had 16 points and Adama Sanogo added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Huskies.
The game was tied at the halftime, but St. John’s scored the first two baskets after intermission and led the entire second half.
The Red Storm went up 68-60 on a break-away dunk by AJ Storr after UConn missed four shots that could have cut the lead to four points. That was part of a 9-0 run that put the Red Storm up by 13.
The Huskies led by as many as eight points in the first half before St. John’s fought its way back and after a 12-2 run went up 27-22. The teams traded leads the rest of the half and went into intermission tied at 38.
The game was extremely physical. UConn’s Donovan Clingan and David Jones of St. John’s each picked up a flagrant foul for exchanging elbows after Clingan grabbed a rebound in the first half. St. John’s Posh Alexander and UConn’s Hassan Diarra chirped at each other later in the half, with each picking up technical fouls.
Sanogo got thrown out of the game for saying something to an official with less than a minute to go and Curbelo was tossed a few seconds later.
