Xavier overcomes abysmal three-point shooting to stun No. 7 Marquette

Xavier had to overcome poor three-point shooting (11.8%). Junior guard Ryan Conwell, who averaged 17.1 PPG coming into Saturday, only had six points and missed all eight of his long-range attempts. The team's leading scorer, senior forward Zach Freemantle, had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Although Conwell had difficulty finding the bottom of the net, this assist to senior guard Marcus Foster under the basket led to a three-point play and stretched the Musketeers' lead to 58-51 with 2:09 remaining.

While the Musketeers struggled from the floor, their defense made up for the lack of scoring. Marquette was only 23-of-62 (37.1%) and 8-of-29 (27.6%) from behind the arc. That continues to be a troubling trend for the Golden Eagles, who had only converted 32.9% of their threes prior to Saturday.

Senior guard Kam Jones, who leads the team with 19.6 PPG, was held to 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting. Despite the adversity, Jones tried to keep his team in the game with a pair of layups in the late stages of the game. This score under the basket got the Golden Eagles within two, 59-57, with 12.8 seconds left.

Senior forward David Joplin (18 points) led the production for a Marquette team that trailed by as many as 19 and overcame a 35-24 halftime deficit. 

The loss ended Marquette's unbeaten start to conference play. The Golden Eagles (15-3, 6-1 Big East) will look to respond in a road game against Seton Hall on Tuesday.

For Xavier (12-7, 4-4 Big East), this was its first win over a ranked opponent this season. After experiencing a three-game losing streak and back-to-back losses in the first half of their schedule, the Musketeers head to Madison Square Garden to face St. John's on Wednesday as they try to extend their current three-game winning streak and turn their season around.

Considering Xavier is tied for 14th in three-point percentage (39.29%), per NCAA.com, Saturday's struggles from deep appear to be more of an outlier. If that is the case, this Xavier team may have more upsets in store.