Markus Howard Nears Milestone As Marquette Plays Xavier

Marquette Golden Eagles senior guard Markus Howard needs eight points tonight against the Xavier Musketeers to reach the 2,500 mark for career points.   Howard, who is now the leading scorer on Marquette's all-time list, also has a more personal plateau to reach because with 32 points he will be the leading scorer in his own family.

Howard's brother Jordan, scored 2,524 points while playing for Central Arkansas from 2015-18.

Xavier will send two newly minted 1,000-point club players to try to thwart Howard and his teammates from defeating Xavier for the fourth straight time in a series that spans 50 years.  Marquette record is 52-24 over Xavier since 1959-59.

Naji Marshall, the scoring leader for the Musketeers owns 1,072 poins and is 48th on the scoring list for Xaver.  Tyrique Jones is right behind him with 1,030 points at 53rd place.  Josh Carter, who transfered from Ohio University has 981 points, 145 of which he's scored at Xavier.

Xavier (13-7, 2-5) is coming off a 77-66 loss at Creighton on Sunday.  The Golden Eagles (14-6,4-4) lost at Butler 89-85 in overtime on Friday.

The Howard brothers is number one for NCAA scoring by brothers.  Their 5,016 points is more than Seth and Stephan Curry at 4,736.  Tyler and Ben Hansbrough have 4,523.  Larry and Eddie Bird scored a total of 4,405 and Chuck and Wesley Person have scored 4,377.

Eugenio Suarez Has Shoulder Surgery

Eugenio Suarez had surgery today to remove loose cartilage in his right shoulder.

The Reds' third baseman,who is coming off a 49-home run season, was injured in an accident in a swimming pool.

Suarez will be limited during the early part of spring training but is expected to be ready to play closer to the start of the season.

Xavier Sheds Losing Streak Downing Hoyas

It was no secret the Xavier Musketeers had been struggling through three straight losses coming into a Big East battle against the Georgtown Hoyas

Coach Travis Steele tol his team they had to play to our identity. "I told our guys that it didn't matter if it was five guards or five bigs, we were going to play the guys who earned it in practice."

Steele put a bigger lineup against a good rebounding team.  Zach Freemantle started along with Jason Carter and Tyrique Jones.  The big lineup paid off in a 66-57 win over the Hoyas.

Georgetown starting lineup included 7' senior center Omer Yurts3even and 6'8" Jamorko Pickett..  Xavier used a rebounding advantage 48-38 to stop the losing streak.

Xavier (13-6, 2-4) won for the first time since a 75-67 win over St. John's on January 5.  There were 16 rebounds among the 48 rebounds and the Musketeers turned that into enough points to earn the win over Georgetown (12-8, 2-5).

"We have to use our quickness to our advantage," Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing said..  "Sometimes you have to be like a junkyard dog when a team is bigger than you.  They got 14 offensive rebounds.  They got 22 points off that."

The larger Xavier lineup put pressure on Yurtseven, who was hampered by early foul trouble.

"I don't know if it was foul trouble or not but we need him to play bigger," Ewing said. "When he came back he still only got to rebounds.  We regrouped in the second half but we go too far in the hole."

Xavier led 35-23 at halftime and held off the Hoyas in the second half as the lead dwindled to eight with 3:00 left.

Xavier got a needed boost from Kyky Tandy, who scored 11 of his career-high 18 points in the second half.  He became the first freshman to score 18 points in a game since teammate Naji Marshall tallied 20 against Seton Hall in his freshman year two years ago.  Marshall matched Tandy with 18 points to share the high scoring honors for Xavier.

Mac McClung was the leading scorer with 19.

"He's a bucket machine," Steele said of McClung.

Jones who is averaging a double-double for the season pulled in a game-high 13 rebounds, four on the offensive end.  Freshman Freemantle had four offensive rebounds among his seven.  Josh Carter pulled in 10 rebounds.  Jones with 10 and Carter with 11 joined Tandy and Marshall as double digit scorers.

Pickett led Georgetown with 10 rebounds.

"We were outrebounded at Marquette," Jones said.  "We had a drill in practice that we used to help us.  If we couldn't get the rebound we were to tip it to keep it alive."

Steele dusted off the drill.

"It was a drill we used but one of our guys got hurt so we got away from it," Steele said.

Xavier played without Quentin Goodin, who was hurt in warmups but was a positive presence on the sidelines.  "He tweaked his knee. He was unavailable to play. You could hear Q in the huddles," Steele said.  "You know he wanted to be out there but he stayed with us on the bench. It was really good to hear.."

The win gave the Musketeers a 15-5 advantage over Georgetown all-time.

Xavier Hosts Swamp Dwelling Georgetown

The Xavier Musketeers host the Georgetown Hoyas at the Cintas Center.  The Hoyas are fresh off an 84-80  loss to Marquette in beleagured Washington D.C.

The Hoyas are 12-7 with a 2-4 Big East Conference record.  Host Xavier is 12-6 and 1-4 in conference play.

Xavier won its first Big East contest but has suffered losses to Seton Hall, Creighton and Maquette since.

Naji Marshall leads the Musketeers with a 16.7 ppg, followed by Paul Scruggs with a 14.7 average. Tyrique Jones leads Xavier with a 9.6 rebounds per game and 13.6 points.  Jason Carter is scoring at a 7.1 clip and Quentin Goodin rounds out the starters with 6.8 per game.

Mac McClung leads Georgetown with a 19 ppg average.  McClung is a sophomore.  Omer Yurtseven is next with 14.2 ppg.  Junior Jamorko Pickett scores 11.3 ppg.  Terrell Allen a graduate transfer from Central Florida is a 9.8 scorer and senior Jagan Mosely averages 9.3 per game.  Yurtseven, at seven feet tall, is the leading rebounder at 9.5 per game.

Xavier leads the all-time series 14-5 since, including a 1990 meeting in the NCAA tournament when Xavier reached the Sweet 16 for the first time under Pete Gillen.  Xavier's 74-71 win in the second round propelled the Musketeers with Tyrone Hill, Derek Strong, Aaron Williams, Jamie Gladden, Michael Davenport and Jamal Walker over a storied Georgetown squad with Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo on John Thompson's unit.

Bluejays Clip Musketeers Wings

A season-long shooting slump bit the Xavier Musketeers again in a devastating second straight Big East Conference home loss.  This time the Creighton Bluejays absconded with a 77-65 at the Cintas Center.

Xavier missed 21 3-point shots and at the half were just 3-for-17 from behind the arc.  Creighton started slowly from the floor but Mitch Ballock with 19 points and Ty-Shon Alexander 18 points started to connect. Xavier made six 3-pointers for shooting percentage of 19.2.

"We didn't play good defense.  We have to be better," Xavier coach Travis Steele said.  "One thing you can't do when you're not hitting shots is play bad defense."

Xavier (12-5, 1-3) have dropped two straight and three of their last four games.  Creighton (13-4, 2-2) bounced back from a 64-59 loss to Villanova at home, the second of two straight losses.

"We lost two games in a row to Butler and Villanova then we have a very good Xavier team on the other end," Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.  "We have to understand that if you lose a couple games in this league, you can't throw every thing out the window. You have to stick to what you're doing and get better at it."

Naji Marshall led Xavier with 21 points but made just one of four 3-pointers.  Tyrique Jones managed 12 points as McDermott's strategy was to double down on Jones and let the Musketeers shoot the outside shot it paid off. Jones came into the game averaging a double-double at 13.65 points and 10.1 rebounds per game.

"Our guys did a great job in the first 15 minutes keeping Xavier at bay," McDermott said. "We weren't making shots. Today we tried to sag off and not let Tyrique Jones open inside.  We were going to let them shoot it.  We felt keeping the ball out of Jones' hands was our best option."

Creighton was cold in the first half also but stuck with their plan.

"All of our guys work on our 3-point jump shot. Defenses are getting out on shooters more often. It is hard to get looks we were finding our rhythm in the second half," leading scorer Marcus Zegarowski said. "Our plan was to not let them post up.  We're kind of small. Big Tyrique is a lot down there. We were trying to make sure they didn't burn us down there and play strong team defense.  I think we did that."

Zegarowski scored 11 points, six points below his 17.4 average per game.

Creighton is the first Xavier opponent to win four games at the Cintas Center.

Xavier is 267-43 at the Cintas Center in the 20 years it has been open.  It is the seventh best home record in the country but they've now lost two in a row there.

Colerain Miami Grad To Coach Detroit Lions

Colerain High and Miami University grad Brayden Coombs was named special team coordinator for the Detroit Lions today.

Coombs, graduated from Colerain High in 2005.  He was a two-year starter at defensive back and returned punts on a team the won the Ohio State Division I football championship in 2004.

The son of longtime Colerain coach Kerry Coombs, played four season at wide receiver for the Miami Redhawks.

The 33-year old Coombs started on the staff of Cincinnati Bengals Head Coach Marvin Lewis in 2009.  The last five seasons he was the assistant to Bengals's special team coordinator Darrin Simmons.

Xavier Hosts The Fighting Bluejays At The Cintas Center

The Musketeers take on the Creighton Bluejays in the geographically incorrect Big East Conference this afternoon at the Cintas Center.

Creighton is the western most member of the conference with it's Omaha, Nebraska campus just this side of the middle of the country.  From Creighton's campus it is 1,668 miles to the Pacific Ocean and 1,212 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.  Creighton is the only team housed in the Central Time Zone.

Coach Greg McDermott in his 10th season at Creighton brings his squad 719 miles to oppose the Musketeers both teams bring identical records of 12-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference.  Xavier leads the all-time series 17-13.  They last met in Madison Square Gardens in the Big East tournament on March 14, 2019.  Xavier pulled out a 63-61 win in overtime.

Creighton starts three juniors, Ty-Shon Alexander 15.9 ppg, Damien Jefferson 8.7 ppg and Mitch Ballock 12.3 ppg.,  The other two starters are, Marcus Zegarowski 17.4, the leading scorer and Christian Bishop 8.9 ppg.   Alexander is the leading rebounder averaging 6.0 per game.

Both teams are coming off home losses.  Creighton fell to Villanova 64-59.  Xavier dropped a game to Seton Hall 83-71.

Xavier is led by Naji Marshall 16.5 ppg and Tryrique Jones 13.6 ppg and 10.1 rebounds per game.  Jones is trying to become the first Xavier player to average a double-double since David West did it in 2002-03.

Myles Powell Wrecks Xavier's House

Myles Powell led the Seton Hall Pirates to a 83-71 win over the Xavier Musketeers with 24 points.

Powell missed two games with a concussion that he suffered against Rutgers on December 14.  He returned to score 27 in a win over DePaul and 15 points in a win over Georgetown since returning to the court.  He is second behind Marcus Howard of Marquette for the Big East scoring lead.

In wining its fifth straight game, the Pirates is 3-0 in the Conference for the fourth time.(2017-18, 1998-99, 1992-93).  Seton Hall played in the NCAA Tournament in two of the previous three season that got off to a fast start.

"I'm 100 percent now," Powell said.. "The school and  the coaches did a good job of getting me ready to play by not rushing things  The guys did a good job of finding me.  We ran some plays to get me open."

His coach Kevin Willard believes there is even more in Powell's game that will dazzle the conference.

"I think Myles is about 80 percent right now.  As he gets back in shape and over the concussion, you're going to see a guy that will elevate his game even more," Willard said.

The result was a key road win for Seton Hall and a hurtful home loss for Xavier.

"Road wins in this league are huge.  As even as we all our they are hard to come by," Willard said.

Powell and his teammates are up for the challenge.

"People forget, we're battle tested. At the beginning of the year we lost some close ones, some big ones," Powell said. "We went back and coach did a good job of making us realize, how not to be in that situation again.  When they cut it down to four or six, we did a great job of getting under control. We got an alley oop  to Rho (Jared Rhoden) and came down and got a big stop. Every body is getting older and knowing their role and what they have to do."

Xavier coach Travis Steele is aware of it and will implore his team to play with more urgency.

 It's huge. It's everything. You want to give yourself a chance to win this league, you've got to protect home court," Steele said. "We weren't able to do that tonight, unfortunately. We've got to protect the Cintas Center, man. That's big for us going forward.



As painful as it was to get his bell rung at Rutgers, Powell thinks it turned into a positive.

"It may sound crazy but that concussion could have been the best thing that happened to us. Everybody put their big boy pants on and picked up their game," Powell said.

Trailing by as many as 16 with 9;38 remaining, Xavier used a press to cut the lead to four with 2:55 remaining.  Seton Hall stole back a bad pass after a Xavier steal and scored.  They made their free throws down the stretch to close out the win.



Four of Powell's mates ended up in double figures.

Jared Rhoden scored 16.  Quincy McKnight added 15 and Romano Gill had 11.

Xavier played from behind after the first five minutes of the game, and trailed 40-32 at the half.

Tyrique Jones, who is averaging a double-double on the year scored 19 points to lead Xavier.  Paul Scruggs had 17.  Leading scorer joined the 1,000-point club with 15 points and has 1,003 points for his career.  Jason Carter hobbled by an ankle sprain suffered in shoot-around before the game scored 14 points, two off his season high.

Xavier Hosts The Seton Hall Pirates

In the talent laden Big East Conference it is important to "hold service" at home.

The Xavier Musketeers will host the streaking Seton Hall Pirates with that in mind.  Xavier lost on the road to Villanova but defeated St. John's at home.  The Pirates have won four straight and both of their Big East contests, beating DePaul 74-66 on the road and Georgetown 78-62 at home.

The Pirates and Musketeers split their two games last season with each team winning on the road, ironically.  Seton Hall is 11-9 against Xavier all-time and 7-6 since both entered the Big East together.

Seton Hall (11-4, 2-0) is an experienced team, starting seniors, Quincy McKnight 11.1 ppg, Myles Powell 21.2 ppg, the Pirated leading scorer and Romaro Gill 6.1 ppg.  Junior Myles Cale 7.9 ppg and sophomore Jared Rhoden 8.1 ppg fill the first five.

Xavier (12-3, 1-1) boasts leading scorer Naji Marshall, a junior who averages 16.6 ppg and will become a 1,000-point scorer with his 12th point.  Senior Tyrique Jones averages a double-double with 13.2  points and 10.1 rebounds per game.  The last player to do that for a season was NBA star David West, who averaged 16.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.

Xavier will host Creighton on Saturday January 11 at 2:00. Seton Hall plays Marquette at home at 4:00 on Saturda.

Xavier Calms Red Storm For First Big East Win

Naji Marshall scored a game-high 20 points and Kyky Tandy hit four 3-pointers during a key 9-0 run to calm the St. John's Red Storm as the Xavier Musketeers won its first Big East Conference game 75-67.

"We stayed together," said Quentin Goodin about surviving turnovers.

Tandy's shooting helped Travis Steele's squad forget its 19 turnovers.  The Musketeers were fortunate to push the lead.  St. John's connected on just one of 16, 3-pointers.

"We didn't shoot the ball well," St. John's coach Mike Anderson said.  "We had 17 more possessions than they did.  When you go on the road and don't make shots it is kind of disappointing.  They (Xavier) did what they're supposed to do.  They held serve at home. The Tandy kid was the hero for them."

Tyrique Jones took advantage of a soft middle of the Red Storm defense to slam home three dunks leading to his 12 points.  Tandy finished with 12 points and Paul Scruggs contributed 14 points to the Xavier (12-3, 1-1) cause.  Scruggs hit four free throws in the closing minutes.

"My teammates were finding me," Tandy said.  "I just trusted the process and my teammates believed in me."

"It made my job a lot easier. Kyky is a great shooter and opened the middle for me," said Goodin of his fellow Kentuckian.  Goodin dished out a team-high five assists, some of which led to Jones' dunks.

St. John's (11-4, 0-2) dropped its 10th straight decision to the Musketeers.  LJ Figueroa led the Red Storm with 17 points. Marcellus Earlington scored 12 points off the bench but it wasn't enough to give St. John's its first win over Xavier since the 2014-15 season.

Mustapha Heron, who missed St. John's previous three games with an ankle injury, scored just 11 points after showing some rust.  Heron is the Red Storm's leading scorer at 15 ppg coming into the game.

Xavier survived 13 turnovers, including five by leading scorer Naji Marshall in the first half to lead the Red Storm 34-32 at halftime.  Marshall led all scorers with 15 points at the break.

St. John's put together an early 11-0 run but Xavier fought back with 15-4 run to regain the lead.  Xavier had its largest lead of six at the four-minute mark but St. John's tied the game two minutes later. LJ Figueroa led the Red Storm with six points.  St. John's turned the ball over just four times.

"We knew they were going to press us the whole game," Travis Steele said.  "You see the press on film and you really don't know what it's like.  Then the more you see it the better you handle it.  We turned the ball over 13 times.  Give St. John's all the credit.  They scored a lot of points off turnovers.  I thought we got into a better rhythm as the game went on."

Dontarius James came off the bench to grab eight rebounds to go along with six points.  Jones led the Musketeers with 12.

"Dontarius played more minutes tonight than he's played all year," Steele said.  "He scored six points and he's a better shooter than that but I'm proud of him.  I made it crystal clear with what he had to get playing time and he's done that.  He added great defense and got big rebounds."

James got an ovation when he came out of the game in the waning minutes.

Xavier Faces St. John's Looking For First Conference Win

The Xavier Musketeers will host The St. John's Redstorm, looking for its first Big East Conference of the season after falling to the Villanova Wildcats on Monday 68-62.

St. John has not beaten the Musketeers since the 2014-15 season when the Redstorm swept the series to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

St. John's has two seniors and two grad students on its roster but senior Mustapha Heron is expected to start for the first time in four games.  Heron leads the Redstorm with a 15.0 points per game average.  They will start a freshman, a sophomores, a junior and Heron the senior. Nick Rutherford, who is a grad transfer from Monmouth College, fills the starting lineup..

St. John's upset AP#16 Arizona to cap a seven-game winning streak before losing a close conference battle with Butler on New Year's Eve 60-58 to post an 11-3 overall record and 0-1 in the Big East.

Xavier lost its first conference game and enter Sunday's game with an identical record.  Xavier led by Naji Marshall's 16.4 ppg has won five of its last seven games after starting the season 6-0.

The Musketeers are 11-3 all-time against St. John's.

Mike Anderson replaced Chris Mullins after a 21-13 record but a disappointing 8-10 Conference showing.  Anderson coached Arkansas, Missouri and Alabama Birmingham (UAB).  Anderson was on the staff of Nolan Richardson at Arkansas which used a full court press for "forty minutes of Hell."  Anderson has never faced Xavier as a head coach.