The Marquette men’s basketball team snapped its four-game Big East Tournament losing streak with the team’s impressive win in its first round matchup against No. 8 Seton Hall.
“I thought it was one of our better games of the season,” coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “I think our guys have really good preparation. I think it’s the healthiest we’ve been in the second half of Big East play. Our guys are getting better.”
The Golden Eagles dismantled Seton Hall’s normally impressive 3-point defense in the team’s win. Marquette shot 59.1 percent from behind the arc, mostly because of Matt Carlino’s green light. Carlino scored 24 points from behind the arc and finished with 26 points as the game’s leading scorer. He shot 66.7 percent from behind the arc and helped the team to shoot 70 percent from behind the line in the second half. His eight made 3-pointers tied a Big East Tournament record.
“Before Matt was injured, he was having First Team All-Big East (and) was having a great, great year,” Wojciechowski said. “He’s one of the best guards in the country. And he showed it tonight.”
Marquette used its 3-point shooting to jump out to a 6-0 lead to start the game on makes from Carlino and redshirt freshman Duane Wilson. The team led 10-2 by the first media timeout to put itself in great position for the rest of the game. Three turnovers in four possessions after the timeout allowed Seton Hall to get back into the game, but another 10-2 run by the Golden Eagles assured it wouldn’t be that close again.
Also contributing to the Golden Eagles’ success was redshirt freshman Duane Wilson, sophomore Luke Fischer and senior Derrick Wilson. Fischer was Marquette’s second leading scorer with 14 points, while Duane followed closely with 13 points. Derrick set a career-high with 14 assists. Marquette shot 56.9 percent from the floor for the game.
“I think collectively, as a team, it just really clicked for us tonight,” Carlino said. “Derrick’s really good at finding the open man and making the smart decision.”
Much of Marquette’s big lead stemmed from its stellar defense. The Golden Eagles employed its 2-3 zone and saw a lot of success. Seton Hall’s leading scorer Sterling Gibbs scored just three points in the first half and finished the game with six points. Isaiah Whitehead was the only Pirate to score in double-digits with 12 points. As a team, Seton Hall shot 20-for-50 from the floor.
“I thought we did a nice job of locating our shooters,” Wojciechowski said. “Luke in particular did an amazing job protecting our basket.”
Seton Hall started to build momentum heading into the halftime break as Gibbs and Whitehead, but Marquette grabbed it back with a buzzer-beating bank shot by Steve Taylor, Jr. to put Marquette ahead 35-22. Coming out of the break, the Golden Eagles pulled away even more with a Fischer layup and Carlino 3-pointer. Marquette continued to pull away for the rest of the half.
A scary moment for the Golden Eagles was when Duane Wilson crashed into the scorer’s table going after a loose ball. He went into the locker room, but came into the game minutes later.
With the win, Marquette plays No. 1 Villanova in the quarterfinals. Tip-off is noon local time.
“It’s going to be a great challenge, and one we look forward to,” Wojciechowski said of Villanova. “There’s no better time than March, period. Period.”
Video by Mike Cianciolo
