CHICAGO — Marquette men’s basketball drove an hour and a half Saturday afternoon to Chicago for its first real test of the season against Indiana.
After the Golden Eagles (2-1) were sliced open by the Hoosiers (2-0) in a 100-77 loss Sunday at the United Center, it was not entirely clear that their defense made the trip down as well. It was the most points ceded by Marquette in 40 minutes since North Carolina won 95-63 in the first round of the 2022 NCAA tournament, Shaka Smart’s first season as head coach.
According to ESPN Stats and Info, it was also the first time a Smart-coached team gave up 100 points in regulation, and the first time Indiana scored 100 points against a high-major opponent since Jan. 19, 2016.
“Against a team like that, you got to have five guys on a string,” Smart said. “I think our guys have been making a lot of progress in that area, but today for whatever reason, there wasn’t enough carry over.”
Marquette’s defense forced eight turnovers, with only three steals, while Indiana had 27 assists on 33 made field goals.
Behind most of those baskets were Tucker DeVries and Lamar Wilkerson, the two Hoosiers who combined for 50 points and 12 3-pointers — each at different segments of the game.
DeVries got going early, scoring 24 of his 27 points in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc. And when he faded in the final 20 minutes, Wilkerson stepped up with ease, dropping 15 points and identically making five of his seven threes.
“We knew coming into the game that they had a lot of offensive weapons,” Smart said. “We talked about as a team, in order to beat a team like that, you have to make them miss. You can’t hope they miss.”
The Golden Eagles kept pace with the Hoosiers in the early going, thanks largely to an active whistle and frequent trips to the free throw line. After just four and a half minutes, senior guard Chase Ross drew Indiana’s seventh foul and headed to the charity stripe on and-one opportunity.
Already in the bonus, Marquette looked to be in good position to live at the line for the rest of the half. Then the fouls came for them, too, and the Hoosiers forced the Golden Eagles’ seventh foul not long after.
“I thought Indiana handled that much, much better than we did,” Smart said. “There was a stretch where we picked up some fouls and got guys in foul trouble. I think that got guys on their heels and took away from our aggressiveness too.”
Through 12 minutes of play, with 17 combined fouls called, the two teams sat fairly even. After Ross split a pair of free throws, Indiana’s led 34-30. That was the last time it would be close. Over the final 7:36 of the first half, the Hoosiers outscored the Golden Eagles 22-8, punctuated by a Conor Enright half-court buzzer beater, to lead 56-38.
“[Indiana] really capitalized on mistakes on our end,” Smart said. “They turned their stops into scores a bunch during that stretch, and that was, in a lot of ways, a backbreaker.”
Down 18 at halftime, Marquette needed its offense — still wrought with questions this season — to generate points. At first, it did, too.
The Golden Eagles were able to trim the Hoosiers’ lead to 10 with 13:46 remaining thanks to a triple from junior guard Zaide Lowery, Marquette’s second of the half — matching its total from the first 20 minutes. That would be the blue & gold’s last, finishing just 4-for-16 (25%) compared to Indiana’s 14-for-28 (50%).
Ten points was as close as Marquette would get the rest of the way as well, as a 15-4 extended Hoosier run put the game out of reach, 80-59.
“It was 18 at halftime, 12 is different than 18,” Smart said. “Now, if we go on the run we went on at the beginning of the second half, you’re in the game.”
Because the deep shots were not falling, Marquette needed to find other ways to score. That did not happen. The Golden Eagles finished with only 10 assists, scoring consistently only from the free throw line (29-for-33).
“There was a lot of possessions where it was just one pass and shot,” Ross said. “Got to get to multiple actions, move the ball around.”
Beyond Ross’ team-high 19 points — 10 of which came from the line — first-year Nigel James Jr. was the only offensive positive (16 points), and half of his scoring came from, yep, free throws. James Jr. started the second half at point guard in place of Sean Jones.
“He’s the one guy on our team that, right now, he’s going to be ultra-aggressive. We got to help him play with poise when he does that,” Smart said. “But we had some other guys that were too passive. Then when they got that way, they got quiet, too.
“That’s a bad combination.”
Now the Golden Eagles go back to Milwaukee — where they seemed to forget their defense — to face Little Rock on Wednesday at Fiserv Forum before another test in Maryland on Saturday.
“We can learn and grow from [the loss],” Ross said. “It’s early on in the season, the season’s far from over. So just keep growing from that.”
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
