Marquette men’s basketball looks to regroup in their BIG EAST home opener against the UConn Huskies after a 80-71 loss to the No. 18 Xavier Musketeers on Saturday.
The Golden Eagles late second-half push was not enough to overcome the Musketeers 12-4 run to start the half. After being down 10 with slightly over three minutes to go, redshirt junior guard Greg Elliott hit a 3-pointer in the right corner to bring the score within one, 70-69.
Xavier would execute down the stretch as a Nate Johnson 3-pointer in the corner with just 28 seconds remaining would seal the deal on the hopes of a Golden Eagles rally.
“Really proud of the way that our guys fought and clawed when we got down in the second half, to bring us back to whatever we got it to one possession,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said after the game. ” But we made a few too many mistakes to be able to win a game like this against Xavier on their home floor.”
One area where Marquette had “few too many mistakes” was when Xavier switched up its defensive scheme, during parts of the game, to zone defense.
“We had a bunch of finishes that we did not complete,” Smart said. “Xavier deserves a lot of credit for that with their length around the basket. We had multiple dunks we missed, several layups, we had a lob to Kur (Kuath) against the zone in the second half that usually he’s great at.
“I did think in the first half we were a little deer-in-headlights against the zone. But our guys did a much better job in the second half. We just missed some opportunities.”
UConn enter Tuesday’s game with a 9-3, 0-1 BIG EAST record as they are coming off a 57-53 loss to Providence on Saturday. The Friars used an 11-1 run to end the first half and a 6-0 run to begin the second to pull out the upset as the Huskies were then-ranked No. 20 in the country.
“Getting down 16 in a game like this is where we lost the game,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said after the game to the media. “You can’t let that game get to 16. These weren’t two prolific offensive teams. The game never should have gotten to 16.”
Uconn has wins over Virginia Commonwealth University, St. Bonaventure and most notably Auburn, who is currently No. 12 in the AP Poll. Their two other losses were to Michigan State, who is currently No. 15, and West Virginia.
The Huskies have been dealing with the injury plague over the last few weeks with Adam Sanogo and Tyrese Martin. Martin returned in Saturday’s loss, finishing with 15 points, five rebounds and an assist.
During Sanogo and Martin’s absence, graduate student guard R.J. Cole has been the Huskies go-to scorer. In 12 games this season, Cole is averaging 16.0 points, 4.0 assists and 3.6 rebounds while adding a team-high 19 steals.
UConn sits at top of several categories in the BIG EAST including No. 4 in scoring offense (79.4 points per game), No. 2 in scoring margin (+17.4), No. 3 in free-throw percentage (73%), No. 1 in rebounding offense (42.9 offensive rebounds per game) and No. 1 in block shots (6.9 per game).
For the Golden Eagles, redshirt first-year forward Justin Lewis leads the team in points and rebounds at 15.3 and 7.8 respectively. Graduate student forward Kur Kuath leads the league in blocks averaging 3.0 per game.
Kuath and redshirt first-year forward Oso Ighodaro have provided a consistent presence on both ends of the court for Marquette. The duo has combined to shoot 70.9% from the field and 8.9 rebounds per game in 12 outing this season.
Over the last two games, Elliott has led the team averaging 20.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 27 minutes off the bench.
Last season, UConn swept the regular-season series in its first year back in the BIG EAST. Marquette leads the all-time series 6-5, dating back to the its inaugural season in the league in 2005-2006.
Tuesday’s game will be broadcasted on FS1, tipping off at 8 p.m. CST. It can also be heard on Marquette Radio,with coverage beginning at 7:50 p.m. CST. Following the game, Marquette will head into the Christmas Holiday before traveling to Queens, New York to face St. John’s Dec. 29.
This article was written by John Leuzzi. He can be reached at j[email protected] or on Twitter @JohnLeuzziMU.