It’s been a tough week for No. 20 Marquette men’s basketball.
It started with a rough loss to UConn at Gampel Pavilion in which the Golden Eagles (22-9, 13-7 Big East) suffered a late 3-pointer to Alex Karaban en route to a six-point loss, and ended with an 86-84 home loss at the buzzer to No. 6 St. John’s (27-4, 18-2 Big East) on Al’s Day.
“We played a terrific, gritty game as we always do,” St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino said. “It’s a hell of a win, probably my favorite win of the season by far.”
The Golden Eagles celebrated their seniors — David Joplin, Kam Jones, and Stevie Mitchell — Saturday before the game. The group has amassed 97 wins together in their four years with the program and looked to tack one more onto that number on Saturday.
But the 57 points that they scored between the three of them wasn’t enough, as big shots down the stretch from St. John’s and missed free throws ultimately led to Marquette’s last regular season game of the year ending on a sour note.
After trailing by a point at halftime, Marquette took its first lead of the second half when Jones laid one in to put it up 49-48. Jones scored 20 of his game-high 32 points in the second half, as he tried to will MU to the finish line. Jones put up a season-high 30 shot attempts Saturday, converting on 14 of them.
The @WBsilverlining highlights from today’s matchup vs No. 6 St. John’s#MUBB | #WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/AIDZlIQIe5
— Marquette Basketball (@MarquetteMBB) March 8, 2025
After getting outrebounded 50-28 the first time these two teams met up in early February, the Golden Eagles held their own on the glass Saturday against the best rebounding team in the Big East, losing the battle on the boards by just four (46-42).
However, the difference was St. John’s scored 27 second-chance points off its 19 offensive rebounds, while Marquette only scored 10 off its 17 offensive rebounds.
“They do that to a lot of people,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said. “You know, we make a few more free throws, you have to win games like this despite certain things like giving up offensive rebounds. We were close to doing that… tough.”
The missed free throws that Smart alluded to, which have been a deplorable thing for the Golden Eagles this season at times, reared their ugly head again in the loss as they shot 12-for-22 from the charity stripe.
The most notable miss of regulation came when Mitchell missed the second of two free throw attempts with 21 seconds left which led to junior guard/forward RJ Luis Jr. going down and making a layup to send the game to overtime.
Then again in overtime, Jones missed a pair of free throws that could’ve given Marquette the lead. After that, Luis Jr. went on a personal 4-0 run to give the Johnnies an 81-77 lead with 2:46 to play.
“I think that it’s getting to a point of acceptance that ‘I’m shooting a shot that’s an important shot, but it’s not going to create a nuclear war in the world,’” Smart said. “It’s a fine line, and then just having the poise to shoot it in.”
The Golden Eagles trailed 84-82 with the ball and had a chance to tie or take the lead with 38 seconds to play. Jones stepped up and hit another big shot to even things up at 84. It was all for not though, as Ross fumbled a rebound attempt away with two seconds which led to a buzzer-beating floater for Ejiofor.
ZUBY EJIOFOR GAME WINNER FOR ST JOHNS! WHAT AN ENDING!
— SSN – College Basketball (@SSN_CBB) March 8, 2025
“Credit to St. John’s, they stayed tough, even to the last play,” Smart said. “Knocking the ball away from us to create a two on one and the basket by Ejiofor.
“…We were able to make them miss, we were trying to get a timeout, but they knocked the ball away from Chase. (Kadary) Richmond made a good play, knocked it away from Chase. I believe he knocked it to Simeon Wilcher, Wilcher made a good pass, it was a two on one with Ben and obviously, it was clearly good.”
The game-winning steal was credited to senior guard Kadary Richmond, who tallied a 10-point, 12-rebound and 11-assist triple-double in 42 minutes of play. Richmond is the first St. John’s player to record a triple-double since Ron Artest had 13 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists against Seton Hall on Jan. 9, 1999.
The Golden Eagles only got four points from their bench in 45 minutes of play, and had three players play a combined 24 minutes (Zaide Lowery, Tre Norman, and Royce Parham). Smart confirmed after the game that first-year forward Damarius Owens had been sick this week, hence why he did not appear Saturday.
Marquette now turn their sights to the Big East Tournament, where they will face Xavier in the 4 vs. 5 matchup on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. CST. MU has made the championship game of the tournament the past two seasons, winning it for the first time ever in 2023.
“Toughness is the price of admission to even have a chance to win,” Smart said about the tournament. “Teams are fighting, teams are battling, teams are physical. Officials are letting a lot of things go, as they have all year, they’re not going to change in the Big East Tournament.
“You know, when you get in single-elimination tournaments, you’ve got to find a way to be just one point better than the other team. St. John’s was two points better than us over 45 minutes, but you got a lot of good teams in this league that are going to be battling and fighting next week.”
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
