It's too bad for Kam Jones that birthdays only come once a year.

The junior guard for the Marquette men's basketball team kicked off his 23rd trip around the sun by scoring his college high of 34 points as the seventh-ranked Golden Eagles rolled to an 88-64 victory over Xavier on Sunday at Fiserv Forum.

Jones had a pretty good celebration last year, too. On his 21st birthday, he had 22 points as the Golden Eagles beat DePaul to clinch a share of the Big East title.

BOX SCORE: Marquette 88, Xavier 64

"A funny joke Coach (Shaka) Smart has made since that game, actually, was how I had a pretty big first half and my second half I pretty much didn't do anything," Jones said. "Funny enough, last game was against DePaul and he brought up last year's game.

" He's like 'Last year we were up 24 points at halftime and then we won by 11.' And then he pointed at me and was like 'You had 22 points at halftime and you didn't (expletive) a drop in the second half.'

"So that motivated me to just go out and stay aggressive."

Kam Jones matched his career high set ... five days ago

If Jones' college high sounds familiar, it's because he just scored 34 points against DePaul on Wednesday.

Over the last two games, Jones has scored 68 points on 23-for-32 shooting in 50 minutes.

"I wouldn't say anything's flipped," Jones said. "I'm just being aggressive. That's my mind-set every game.

"Go out, be aggressive. Don't overthink. Mostly everybody on the college court has been playing basketball their whole life. It's tough. That's why some nights you have certain nights and some nights you have other nights."

Smart likes to say he knows Jones will have a good game when the 6-foot-5 guard's energy and spirit are in a good place. Smart definitely has sensed that recently.

"He's present," Smart said. "It sounds really oversimplified, but you can't be good when you're in the past or in the future mentally.

"When you're here in the moment, and the all comes to you, and you can shoot the ball like him, or attack and finish around the rim like him, then great things are going to happen.

"So you might say, why isn't he present all the time? Well, that's what we're working on. But there's a lot of things for players, coaches, people in other walks of life, that sometimes pull us into the past or into the future. He has a high standard. He's a guy who, believe it or not, puts a lot of pressure on himself. So that can sometimes wreak havoc on the mind."

Shaka Smart liked Golden Eagles' defensive effort

Jones was hot from the start, scoring 12 of MU's first 22 points.

But the Golden Eagles (21-6, 12-4 Big East) didn't grab control until they held the Musketeers (13-14, 7-9) scoreless for over five minutes in the first half.

"I think our guys' defensive energy was good early on," Smart said. "But it even picked up.

"We always keep track of deflections during the game. I always kind of check on where we are with the deflections at each timeout. We had a flurry of deflections during that stretch where we were able to stretch that lead. I always feel like that is a good indicator of energy."

Xavier shot just 4 for 23 (17.4%) on three-pointers.

"Like Coach said, we made some mistakes but it's a game of mistakes," Jones said. "BG (Ben Gold) did a great job on defense. I want to shout him out for that.

"Stew (Stevie Mitchell) as always. He's a hound. He's a pest. He's annoying. I'm very grateful he's on our team. We were out there talking, flying around, doing what we do. It was a lot of fun."

Tyler Kolek hands out more assists

MU point guard Tyler Kolek set a program record with 18 assists against DePaul, overshadowing Jones' big game.

This time, Jones' eruption obscured an 11-point, 10-assist, seven-rebound effort from Kolek.

"His unselfishness," Jones said about what he likes most about playing with Kolek. "Even on nights when I'm 0 for a million, I know he's still going to throw that next pass when I'm open.

"He's going to make that next read. No matter if I'm having a good night, bad night. He gives great encouragements to us. We know that he's looking, so we better be where we're supposed to be and do what we're supposed to do. Because he's throwing the ball to that spot."

Golden Eagles have four Big East games left in regular season

MU has four games left in the regular season, two at home and two on the road.

The defending Big East champions will need some help to catch Connecticut (25-3, 15-2) in the league standings, though the teams meet on March 6 at Fiserv Forum.

But Smart likes the growth of his team, even with all the ups and downs of the regular season.

"The one thing that we do have that is a steady ascent is the level of experience," he said. "Today, we have two more games worth of experience than we did a week ago.

"And as I've said, each of these games are a chip in our pocket. And a lot of time, the losses are the most powerful chips. Or maybe a win where you came back from being down. Or a loss where you were up and the other team came back. It's all about having the ability to apply that stuff in the moment.

"That's why it's not a steady ascent. Because these guys are human beings. And sometimes it's amazing, you would think 'Hey, we've been here before, let's go do this' and it doesn't happen. But the teams with true competitive maturity are able to make it happen when it matters most. In a week, the calendar will flip to March and those weeks that follow after that, that's when you better be the best version of you if you want to keep playing."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kam Jones ties career high with 34 points as Marquette beats Xavier 88-64 at Fiserv Forum