Marquette Upsets #11 Villanova; #20 Xavier Squeaks By DePaul in Big East Basketball

There were a couple of down to the wire finishes involving ranked teams in the Big East on January 19th.

Marquette’s Justin Lewis hit a three pointer with 11.5 seconds left in what turned out to be the winning basket in the Golden Eagles’ 57-54 victory at Villanova. The eleventh ranked Wildcats (13-5, 6-2 in conference play) saw there 29 game home winning streak come to an end. Their last loss at home was in November of 2018. Lewis hit five of Marquette’s 13 three point baskets and led the team with 21 points and seven rebounds. The Golden Eagles improved to 13-6 overall, 5-3 in the Big East.

https://youtu.be/3-2eifHq5FU

In Chicago, DePaul played host to the 20th ranked Xavier Musketeers. The Blue Demons led 36-34 at the half, and was tied at 67 with 1:15 to go, when Xavier’s Jack Nunge hit a free throw to give the Musketeers a one point lead. That held up and Xavier came away with a 68-67 win. Nunge led Xavier (14-3, 4-2)with 23 points, including 15 in the second half. David Jones scored 26 for DePaul (10-7, 1-6 ) to lead all scorers.