No. 16 Marquette men’s basketball (23-8, 12-6 BIG EAST) fell to Georgetown on Senior Day 86-84 at Fiserv Forum, marking the Golden Eagles’ fourth consecutive loss. Here are three takeaways from the regular-season finale:
Offense takes better care of the ball
In Marquette’s losses to Villanova, Creighton and Seton Hall, the biggest problem was the number of turnovers. MU combined to commit 58 turnovers in those three games.
Marquette had only five turnovers Saturday afternoon against Georgetown.
“The last few games, we’ve had way too many turnovers,” Bailey said. “Today it was a whole (different) story because we did take care of the ball, but we just didn’t come up with a win.”
“We made better decisions,” head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “We didn’t have any fundamentally unsound turnovers. We just have to continue to do that.”
Three of the Golden Eagles’ five turnovers came from junior guard Markus Howard, and the other two came from freshman forward Joey Hauser.
“We just have to be (smarter),” Bailey said. “Most of the turnovers that we had are bad passes and not being strong with the ball.”
Perimeter defense struggles
Prior to this matchup, Marquette led the BIG EAST in 3-point field goal percentage defense, only allowing opponents to shoot 31.7 percent from beyond the arc.
But against the Hoyas, the Golden Eagles couldn’t stop freshmen Mac McClung and James Akinjo from 3-point range.
“James Akinjo played his butt off,” Georgetown head coach Patrick Ewing said. “Mac showed belief and toughness. He made plays.”
The two guards combined shooting 7 for 11 from 3-point range. The rest of the team was 4 for 8 from 3-point range.
Brendan Bailey has career-high performance
Freshman Brendan Bailey had his best performance at Marquette, tallying a career-high 11 points off the bench.
“He just continues to get more and more comfortable on the floor,” Wojciechowski said.
The 6-foot-8 forward went 3 for 6 from the field and boasted 3-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc. He was 2 of 4 from the free-throw line.
“It feels good to see a couple (shots) go down,” Bailey said. “I would trade all the shots that I made today if we could get a win, but it’s coming along.”
Bailey also played 21 minutes, which is his second-best at Marquette, before fouling out late in the second half.
