It’s been 100 days since the Big East Preseason Coaches’ Poll was announced and had Marquette picked to finish ninth in the conference for the second straight year.
Now at the midway point of the Big East schedule, the No. 20 ranked Golden Eagles have evolved into one of the countries best offensive teams while sitting second in the conference standings.
Marquette (16-5, 8-2 Big East) concluded a three games in six day stretch with a 74-53 road victory Saturday afternoon at the Prudential Center.
The Golden Eagles now head into a week-long break before its next game, in hopes of not another late season collapse.
“I told the guys ‘Have you ever run a mile?’ ” head coach Shaka Smart said. “And they all nodded their head. This was after we played five games and I said, OK, you’ve just ran a lap in a mile. You’ve run one lap; a mile’s four laps.
“So now we’ve run two laps and anyone that’s run a mile knows, that third and fourth lap are tough. So as a team, we’ve got a unique situation where we don’t play again for a week and our guys kind of need some rest because they’re kind of banged up. I canceled shoot around today because I could just sense that resting a little more might help them.”
Marquette’s 8-2 start in Big East play is its best since 2018-19 when it started conference play at 12-2.
Statistical Leaders
Sophomore guard Kam Jones once again led the way for the Golden Eagles with 22 points on 8-for-14 shooting from the field. Jones made 5 of 8 shots from beyond the arc while chipping in three rebounds and three assists.
Junior forward Oso Ighodaro added 18 points on an efficient 7-for-7 shooting.
Junior guard Kadary Richmond’s 10 points and five assists led the Pirates. Senior forward Tyrese Samuel added eight points.
A Strong First Half
It took a bit for Marquette to gain momentum on offense in the first half, as both sides exchanged baskets early on.
Seton Hall extended its lead to 11-9 early on after an 8-0 run. Then the Golden Eagles found its groove.
Following coming off the bench, sophomore forward David Joplin forced a steal before finding first-year guard Chase Ross for a fast break bucket sparking a run for Marquette.
Seton Hall’s Dre Davis sunk a 3-pointer to tie the game at 27-27 with 5:07 left in the half. Jones responded with scoring eight of Marquette’s final 10 points down the stretch, giving the Golden Eagles a 37-29 halftime lead.
Since Smart took over at Marquette, its identity has been on the defensive end. And Saturday was no different as the Golden Eagles scored 16 points off of 13 Pirates turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
Despite shooting 53.6% from the field in the half, the Pirates were held without a field goal for the final five minutes. Marquette also recorded seven steals compared to Seton Hall’s three in the half.
Sealing the Deal
Jones built on his strong start first half finish scoring six points in the first eight minutes of the second half.
Ross boosted Marquette’s lead to 19 points at the 12:24 mark with a jumper. Seton Hall responded with a pair of free-throws despite its continued three-minute field goal drought.
The Pirates continued to find ways to inch closer to the Golden Eagles, but Marquette put any chances of that to an end when Ross threw down an emphatic dunk over senior forward KC Ndefo at the 5:37 mark.
Seton Hall was plagued with 26 turnovers resulting in 34 points for Marquette.
“I’m going to keep it very simple for you guys today,” Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway said. “Very simple. Give Marquette a lot of credit. We got our (expletive) kicked. Period.”
Up Next
Marquette will stay on the road as it travels down to Chicago to take on I-94 rival DePaul (9-11, 3-6 Big East) at Wintrust Arena Jan. 28. Tip off is schedule for 1 p.m. CST on FS1.
This article was written by Benjamin Hanson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @benhansonMU.
