No game in the Big East is easy, especially on the road. The Marquette men’s basketball team learned that lesson against Cincinnati Sunday and was reminded Wednesday night at the Carnesecca Arena in Queens, N.Y.
In another overtime thriller, the Golden Eagles defeated St. John’s 63-61.
With the game tied at 61 and 20 seconds left, Jimmy Butler knocked down a game winning baseline jumper as time expired to give Marquette the victory.
With another big road win, Marquette moves to 9-6 in Big East play and a 18-9 record overall.
In what was one of Marquette’s worst shooting performances of the year — 34.4 percent from the field, 27.8 percent from 3-point range — the Red Storm outscored Marquette 29-25 in the first half.
“Even though we didn’t shoot the ball the way we wanted too, we were still able to overcome that with tough defense and big stops down the stretch” coach Buzz Williams said.
Marquette’s experience in close contests this season helped the team close out tight games as of late.
“When we get into close games now it’s kind of like Groundhog Day, or déjà vu,” Williams said. “We now know what we need to do now to finish games, and no situation or any type of game really rattles us anymore.”
At the end of regulation, with Marquette leading 54-51, St. John’s junior guard Malik Boothe connected on a corner 3-pointer to tie the game at 54 with under a minute left.
Jimmy Butler had an opportunity to win the game in regulation, but his jumper fell short as time expired to end the second half. Butler, however, got an opportunity to redeem himself, and he didn’t disappoint.
“I really felt like I should have made the shot before to win it, so I was really glad I had the opportunity to win it in OT,” Butler said.
With 20 seconds remaining in overtime Butler waited out the clock for a last second opportunity. He drove into the lane and had the ball stripped away. But he managed to gather the ball at the baseline and get off a shot right before time expired.
“It was a tough shot, but I had a good feeling once I let it go that it was in,” Butler said. “I’m just glad Buzz and my teammates had the confidence in me to take the last shot.”
Butler ended up with 18 points and eight rebounds, including an impressive night at the line where he went 9-for-12.
“We have the confidence in him to make big shots” senior Lazar Hayward said. “We saw him make the game winner against UConn and we knew he could do it again.”
Hayward finished with a game high 22 points while snatching seven rebounds. For the Red Storm, DJ Kennedy had a respectable night, finishing with a team high 20 points, including 9-of-11 from the charity stripe.
After not having played an overtime game all year, Marquette now comes off huge back-to-back overtime wins on the road.
The Golden Eagles will play their last regular season away game on Sunday against Seton Hall. Marquette then wraps up Big East play with back-to-back home games against Louisville and Notre Dame.