After a lackluster month, No. 21 Marquette men’s basketball finally got back on track Tuesday night.
Efficient 3-point shooting? Check. Extended runs in both halves to balloon the Golden Eagles’ lead? Check. Balanced scoring and lockdown defense? Absolutely.
All of it was a recipe for success, as Marquette (21-7, 12-5 Big East) soared to a 82-52 win over Providence (12-15, 6-10 Big East) at Fiserv Forum in its penultimate regular season home game.
“Thought our guys on the defensive end had a lot of really, really good moments,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said. “To hold Providence to 52 is a good night… I thought the effort starting with Stevie Mitchell was terrific, and that’s always a great place to start.”
Providence started the game on a 6-0 run, but that didn’t last long. By the under-16 media timeout, Marquette trailed by just one point. Shortly after, sophomore guard Tre Norman gave MU a 12-11 lead by netting a 3-pointer — the first of many for the team.
Part way through the first half at the 12:25 mark, first-year forward Royce Parham hit a triple to put his team ahead 18-17. That kicked off a 21-6 run over eight minutes, and at one point, Marquette led by as many as 15 points. In that run, three of its starters scored 11 of the 21 points.
Smart had called on the starting group to be more passionate to start the game after their loss to Villanova, and Stevie Mitchell said understanding his role was the key to how his team played today.
“We all want the same thing at the end of the day,” the senior guard said. “Just being able to get on the same page with what that’s going to take from me, from us being able to take responsibility from what we need to do out there as players. We all agreed that talking about everything can only do so much, but we have to go out be doers.”
The Golden Eagles went into the locker room ahead by 13 points, thanks to that run and hot shooting from beyond the arc — they finished the frame shooting 46 percent from 3-point range. The second half was more of the same, as Marquette started out on a 8-0 run to hold off Providence and extend its advantage. The Friars were also subject to a 14-0 run later in the frame.
MU got out to its largest lead of the night when junior forward Ben Gold scored a layup to put his team up by 31 points with two minutes to play. The Wellington, New Zealand native finished with a career-high 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting.
“It felt good,” Gold said. “I obviously have been struggling a little over the last couple games, but it’s just staying with it, making sure I’m doing the same thing every single day. I’m putting the work in, I see it paying off whether it’s in practice, in games.
“It’s a sigh of relief to see it happening in games a little bit, but I know it’s there. My teammates got me in that position to help me get those open shots.”
Marquette closed out the game with ease, putting in its walk-ons at the 1:20 mark and eventually marking its 13th win at Fiserv Forum. Tuesday night’s win also marked the first time in Smart’s tenure that the Golden Eagles have swept the Friars.
The Golden Eagles finished shooting 41.5 percent from 3-point range and 44.3 percent overall. Out of its 61 shots on the night, 41 of them were 3-point shots, the most triples MU has attempted so far this year. It made 17 treys, which marked the most it has made all season and the second most ever in a Big East game.
“We were just in great positions to hunt out threes,” Gold said. “We were aggressive. We were also just helping each other get open whether it’s attacking, space, kicking out, and we’re all ready to shoot. We know that we’re a high-level team at shooting. We do it every single day. We put the work in. It’s good to see it go in, but we know that’s just not a one-off thing.”
Three Marquette players scored in double figures with both Gold and senior guard Kam Jones finishing with 17 points and Mitchell earning 14 points. MU’s bench also netted 22 points.
Georgetown (16-11, 7-9 Big East) on the road Saturday is up next.
This article was written by Kaylynn Wright. She can be reached at kaylynn.wright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @KaylynnWrightMU.
