The Marquette men’s basketball team begins a two-game road trip tomorrow night in Newark, New Jersey, at the Prudential Center as they take on the Seton Hall Pirates.
Marquette, now ranked No. 22 in the AP Top 25 poll, enters on a six-game winning streak. The Pirates, who received one vote to be ranked in the latest AP Top 25 poll, are coming off back-to-back games against St. John’s in which they won 66-60 Saturday afternoon and then fell in a blowout Monday night, 84-63.
These teams faced off back on Jan. 15 at Fiserv Forum when Marquette picked up a huge win by just one point, 73-72. At the time, Seton Hall was ranked No. 20 in the AP Top 25 poll.
In that matchup, Marquette was led by graduate student guard Darryl Morsell who tied his career-high with 26 points. Redshirt first-year forward Justin Lewis also contributed with 18 points along with five rebounds and three steals.
For the Pirates, they got a stellar performance from graduate student guard Bryce Aiken, who scored 28 points on 9-for-15 shooting including 5-for-8 from beyond the arc.
Aiken has not played since that game however as he suffered a concussion against Marquette. Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard said on Saturday that Aiken would not play on Monday against St. John’s and would likely miss tomorrow’s game against the Golden Eagles as well.
If Aiken continues to miss time, the Pirates will need more scoring from contributors such as senior guard Jared Rhoden and graduate student forward Alexis Yetna, who also scored in double figures against Marquette with 12 and 15 points respectively.
With their win streak, Marquette has improved their record to 14-6 overall and 6-3 in the BIG EAST. They will look to improve their record on the road to 4-2 on the season, with their last road game resulting in their most impactful win of the season at then-No. 11 Villanova.
On the other side, the Pirates have been strong at home this season with a record of 8-2. They have struggled thus far in conference play however, with a record of 3-5.
Along with his team getting into the national rankings due to their recent hot stretch, Lewis was named BIG EAST Player of the Week on Monday for his performances against Villanova and Xavier. Lewis scored 21 and 20 points respectively in each game, including the game-winning 3-pointer with just 11.9 seconds left at Villanova.
Tomorrow’s matchup will tip-off at 8:30 p.m. local time, 7:30 p.m. CST and will be broadcasted on FS1.
Following this matchup, the Golden Eagles will be out east once again on Saturday as they take on No. 17 Providence.
This article was written by Matt Yeazel. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @MJYeazel.
