NEW YORK – Just as junior forward Zuby Ejiofor’s shots fell, so did No. 4 Marquette men’s basketball, as it was unable to find itself advancing to the Big East Championship.
The 79-63 loss was No. 1 St. John’s first win in the Big East Tournament against Marquette in seven attempts.
The Red Storm (29-4) have now won eight in a row.
The Golden Eagles (23-10) had a fire lit from the start, and taking the first stab at both team’s scoring efforts was senior forward David Joplin 2:30 into the game. This came after a ping pong game of both turnovers and missed shots.
The triple shot attempts were netted, and the free throws were made. Both things Marquette had to work on if they wanted a shot to see another day at Madison Square Garden. At the head of the snake, 4:30 after the tip, senior guard Kam Jones had 10 points in the first, allowing for an early 12-5 lead.
The gap grew bigger, enough to the point where it was 15 points, and Marquette had shown New York that they came to fight.
Suddenly, something changed. In just over 1:30, the Golden Eagles managed to put St. John’s at the line three times after several shooting fouls were called. The fire was slowly dying out.
Going into the half, the Red Storm had managed to crawl out of the hole they were in and made it a two-point game.
The beginning of the second half consisted of a Marquette mistake, then an Ejiofor dunk. Then it was a turnover followed by another dunk. Rinse and repeat, Marquette could not get a handle on the pattern St. John’s was displaying.
“I think we just got passive and stopped being aggressive, and that plays into their hands,” senior guard Stevie Mitchell said.
When the Golden Eagles needed the connections from deep in the first half, they were there; and they finished off at 29.4 percent, but 20 minutes to improve that percentage was not enough.
“You’re not gonna necessarily make as many shots in every round, but you’ve got to play with force,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “You start to turn the ball over, and I don’t know if that took away from our spirit at all.”
MU finished the game with a season-high 17 turnovers.
Shooting 8.3 percent in the second half, the only 3-point shot made was by Joplin almost halfway through the half. The rest of the 11 attempts were no-good.
The fight for Marquette was not over, as it attempted to claw its way back like it did Thursday night in the quarterfinal victory against Xavier. Down just four points with 9:07 on the clock, St. John’s shot down all hope pushing the lead back to double digits. As the crowd roared from “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” the Golden Eagles found themselves defeated.
“Our guys have been incredibly committed to our way of doing things, which is unique and different than others,” Smart said. “There’s no one I would rather be in the locker room with, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”
The Golden Eagles will now wait for Selection Sunday, to see what their future holds.
This story was written by Raquel Ruiz. She can be reached at raquel.ruiz@marquette.edu or @raquelruizMU on Twitter/X.
