Marquette men’s basketball and free throw woes have gone hand-in-hand this season.
The Golden Eagles are the only Big East team to be under 68% from the stripe on the season (67.1%), and under 65% in conference play (62.9%). The single player over 80% from the line is someone who has not been on the team in over two months in Zaide Lowery. Adrien Stevens is the lone current member on the roster to have made at least three-fourths of their free throws, while nine sit under 70%.
One could go on and on finding new ways to crunch numbers that highlight the extent of the Golden Eagles’ charity stripe jitters, which have cost them greatly this year. The blue & gold missed eight in their five-point loss at DePaul in January, another eight in a six-point loss to Seton Hall and three in a three-point loss to Villanova.
But, on Sunday, they reached a boiling point.
Marquette fell at home in the DePaul rematch, 62-51, the Blue Demons’ first time sweeping the Golden Eagles since 1990-91.
Of all the statistics to point to for why Marquette lost in such disappointing fashion — the 4-of-22 3-point shooting, 14-point first half and 41-28 rebounding deficit are just a few — the free throw shooting stuck out like a sore thumb.
The Golden Eagles scored only 11 of their 22 shots from the stripe in an 11-point defeat.
The Blue Demons, conversely, went 15-of-19 on free throw attempts.
“We missed some timely ones, too,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said.
Like, with 4:35 remaining and the Golden Eagles trailing by only seven after a spirited second half comeback whittled an 18-point halftime deficit, when Stevens went 1-of-1.
And again, the clock now reading 3:23, with a chance to make it a one-possession game, when Nigel James Jr. missed a front-end one-and-one and DePaul grabbed the rebound. Fast forward 30 seconds, when James Jr. stood back at the line and again missed one of his two shots.
With 2:04 left to play, Royce Parham missed his first of two free throws and the Blue Demons remained ahead by four points — just out of reach. That would be the Golden Eagles’ final shot from the stripe until Marquette trailed 61-51 with 32 seconds left and any hope of victory had been buried under the pile of clanks.
All of the blue & gold’s second half free throw misses came in the final five minutes, a period in which they went 3-of-8.
“We have to get better at it,” Smart said. “We’ve got to coach it better; we’ve got to relax and step up to the foul line and shoot it. I have confidence in those guys shooting them.”
On the night, James Jr. made 6 of his 10 free throws, and Parham was the only other Golden Eagle to convert multiple (3-of-4). Seniors Chase Ross and Ben Gold were both 0-for-2, while Stevens and sophomore Damarius Owens posted a 1-of-2 clip.
“We track all the free throw shooting in practice and when the guys get extra shots,” Smart said, “that I think are better free throw shooters than that.”
DePaul, meanwhile, iced the game from the stripe, doubling a once-six-point lead at the 1:12 mark of the second half into a 61-49 advantage with 41 seconds to go. The Blue Demons made more in those 30-ish seconds than the Golden Eagles did in the last 4:35.
Not for the first time this season, Marquette’s chances of winning died at the line. The “free” throws lived up to their name for DePaul, but cost the Golden Eagles the ultimate price: victory.
“Ultimately, especially when you get this late in the year, whatever your three free throw percentage is, that’s kind of what you are,” Smart said bluntly. “So we have to get better at it.”
The Golden Eagles are running out of time to do that, though. They have two more regular season games — Wednesday at Providence and on Saturday against No. 6 UConn — before the Big East tournament begins March 11.
This story was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.
