It was a night full of history at Fiserv Forum for Marquette men’s basketball.
With every cut, every pass, every rebound and every move, Kam Jones and the 15th-ranked Golden Eagles inched closer to something that hadn’t been done in years.
Let’s start with Jones. The Memphis, Tennessee native did something that hadn’t been done since 2003 when Dwayne Wade did it in the Elite Eight against Kentucky. Thanks to a historic 17-point, 13-rebound and 10-assist performance, Jones became just the third player to record a triple-double in program history.
“The guy’s a savant,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “The only one who can stop Kam is Kam.”
Purdue’s defensive scheme allowed Kam Jones to excel in a part of his game that has continued to show itself to the outside world as the season has gone on — his passing.
If you were to tell someone that watched Jones’ 28-point clinic Friday night at Maryland that he would have nine points with 3:40 to play but Marquette would be up 13 points on the sixth ranked Boilermakers, they might have called you crazy.
But that’s what happened Tuesday night, Jones was in control of the entire game, and Purdue head coach Matt Painter echoed that after the game.
“I thought he was like a seasoned veteran tonight,” Painter said. “He didn’t kills us until he had to.”
Jones had eight points down the stretch for the Golden Eagles, and hit Stevie Mitchell in the corner for a 3-pointer with 51 seconds to play for his 10th assist to earn the triple-double.
“I wasn’t really like pressing it, you know,” Jones said. “Shoutout Stew, he was ready.”
Riding the back of Jones’ historic night, the Golden Eagles (5-0) handed Purdue (4-1) its first non-conference regular season loss since Dec. 8, 2020, 76-58.
Ben Gold — who had struggled early shooting the ball early in the season — did not let that fact affect him in the early going Tuesday night. After back-to-back three pointers by Gold and David Joplin, Marquette jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead.
After Fletcher Loyer hit a triple with 14:39 to go, Marquette trailed 10-8. Gold then hit another three-pointer for the Golden Eagles a couple minutes later to put Marquette back on top 12-10. It would not trail for the remaining 27:04 of the game.
Gold was two-for-two from deep through the first 12 minutes, and finished with 11 points and shot 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
“I was really happy for Ben Gold man,” Smart said. “He’s been fighting, he’s been scrapping, he’s been clawing. He’s been focusing on the 98% and tonight he was rewarded by the basketball gods.
“The shot looked true, he looked confident and obviously those were timely shots for us.”
Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer had a response in store for the Golden Eagles every time they tried to gain an edge in the first eight minutes of play, as Loyer’s seven and Smith’s five were enough to even things at 12 just seven and a half minutes into the game.
After that, the Golden Eagles jacked up the defensive intensity, and the Boilermakers backcourt battery went quiet. Loyer finished with just 13 points, and Smith finished with 11 points and nine assists. They shot a combined 8-for-21 from the field.
Purdue came into Tuesday night’s top 15 tilt averaging just 10.5 turnovers a game. The Golden Eagles must not have gotten the memo the Boilermakers doesn’t like to turn the ball over, because they forced the Boilermakers into nine different mistakes in the first half.
Purdue struggled to make the adjustments necessary at halftime, and finished the game with 15 total turnovers. As usual, Stevie Mitchell led the charge defensively, garnering four steals, with Chase Ross also chipping in four.
“[Purdue’s] got multiple good guards, you know,” Smart said. “So today it was Smith and Loyer, and those guys got going early a little bit, but I did think Chase and Stevie did a better job making things tougher on them as the game went on.”
Speaking of Mitchell, he’s been on fire on the offensive end lately. After scoring 17 and 18 points consecutively last week against Central Michigan and Maryland, the Reading, Pennslvaynia native one-upped himself once again — finishing with a team-high 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting. He was 8-for-8 from the charity stripe as well.
Mitchell has now led the Golden Eagles in scoring in two of their last three outings.
“His confidence right now driving the ball is terrific, Smart said. “You know, he’s spent these four years at Marquette probably as much time or more time on his ball handling than anyone on our team.
“So he’s got a real confidence out there with it.”
Marquette has a chance to make even more history this weekend in the Bahamas, as it attempts to start the season 6-0 for the first time since 2011 against Georgia.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
