The Marquette Golden Eagles played the first half like a team with nothing to lose. They then played the second half like a team with everything to lose. In the end, the Marquette Golden Eagles simply lost.
Marquette (12-3, 2-3 BIG EAST) lost to the Villanova Wildcats (15-2, 5-0 BIG EAST) 83-68 on Wednesday night at The Pavilion. The Golden Eagles lead the No. 6 Wildcats 38-37 at the break before imploding in the second half, shooting 29.6 percent from the field and ceding a 19-2 run to their opponents.
“Against a team like this, you have to put two halves together of good defense and good offense,” said Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski. “In the second half, we had some really good shots and they just didn’t go in. That puts a lot of pressure on your defense, especially against a team like Villanova that does such a great job of scoring the ball and getting to the foul line.”
Villanova opened the game on an 18-4 run that took up just under seven minutes. Three-pointers were the key to Nova’s dominant start; the Wildcats shot 5-7 from beyond the arc in the game’s first 10 minutes to race out to a 26-11 point lead.
Nova’s hot start fizzled almost as quickly as it began, though, and Marquette started to fight its way back in dramatic fashion. The Golden Eagles went on an 18-3 run of their own that was capped off by a three-pointer from freshman point guard Traci Carter to tie the game. Traci, a Philadelphia native, earned a technical foul for taunting the Wildcats’ bench after his three.
“I was very excited and it was very intense at the moment, so I got a little bit carried away,” Carter said of his technical foul.
Despite the foul, Marquette matched Villanova virtually point for point for the rest of the half and took the lead going into the break after freshman power forward Henry Ellenson cleaned up a missed three-pointer from Carter. The Golden Eagles shot an astonishing 61.5 percent from the field in the half, and five different Marquette players had six or more points.
“I thought when we got to (the 26-11 lead), we relaxed just a little bit,” said Villanova head coach Jay Wright. “A couple of lackadaisical shots, a couple of missed assignments defensively, and then they just got it going and got on a run … We were lucky to be able to recover against that; (Marquette) is a good team. Probably if we’re on the road, we don’t recover from that.”
Recover is exactly what Villanova did, although the Wildcats certainly had some help from an uninspired Marquette offense. The Golden Eagles continued to trade blows with the Wildcats for the first portion of the second half, but after a Luke Fischer dunk made the score 50-49 with 12 and a half minutes to go, the Golden Eagles missed their next ten shots from the floor and were on the wrong side of a 20-2 run. By the time Marquette was finally able to break Villanova’s run, the score was 70-51 Wildcats with just under five minutes to go.
The reason for Marquette’s sudden capitulation may very well be their shot selection. In the first half, Marquette only shot eight three-pointers compared to 18 two-point shots. That all changed in the second half, as 14 of the Golden Eagles’ 27 shots were from beyond the arc. During the 20-2 run, Marquette took six three-pointers; some of them open, some of them contested, but all of them missed.
“We’re a drive to the paint team, but we have guys that are capable of hitting shots,” said freshman guard Haanif Cheatham, who lead the team with 17 points. “So when the Villanova defense (collapsed) inside the paint, guys were wide open to hit shots. It just wasn’t our night.”
The Golden Eagles did a solid job on defense during the first half, limiting the Wildcats to a pedestrian 38.7 percent from the field. Even more impressively, Marquette limited Villanova to just five made two-point baskets, which is significant considering that the Wildcats are shooting 60 percent from inside the arc this year.
However, Villanova changed their offensive balance in the second half, opting to double their commitment to working the ball inside at the expense of three-point shooting. Villanova went 13-for-25 from the field in the second half. Wright’s squad also drew 16 Marquette fouls over the course of the half with the more aggressive approach.
“The rhythm of the game changed in the second half, and we have to do a much better job of playing our defense without fouling, obviously,” Wojciechowski said.
Marquette was able to hang around and make the game somewhat interesting after sophomore Sandy Cohen lofted in a three to cut Villanova’s lead to 70-61 with under three-and-a-half minutes to play. However, a fast break turnover from Cohen 40 seconds later and two ensuing free throws from Villanova freshman Jalen Brunson all but dashed Marquette’s already-distant comeback hopes.
“Obviously this is a terrific basketball team and we can learn a lot from a game like this,” Wojciechowski said after the loss.
The Golden Eagles now head back to Milwaukee, where they will get ready to take on the No. 7 Xavier Musketeers on Saturday at the Bradley Center. They will do so knowing they have the talent to compete against the better teams in the BIG EAST. Now, they need to take the next step: showing that talent for 40 straight minutes.
GAME NOTES
- Junior power forward Jajuan Johnson sat out the game with a neck injury that he suffered against Saint John’s on Saturday. He was a limited participant in pregame warm-ups, and his status for the Xavier game is still questionable.
- Four Golden Eagles scored in double figures, with Cheatham’s 17 points leading the way. Ellenson scored 12 points on 5-11 shooting. He has scored 10 or more points in all but one game this year.
- Villanova spread the ball well on offense, with five different Wildcats scoring ten or more points. Junior forward Kris Jenkins lead the team with 20 points on 6-12 shooting. Freshman guard Jalen Brunson, who is considered by most to be the second-best freshman in the BIG EAST next to Henry Ellenson, finished with 14 points.
