Clap hands and squeal for joy, everyone: YOUR Marquette men’s basketball team will not finish the year with a single digit win total. Thanks to the ineptitude of Ed Cooley and the Georgetown Hoyas, Marquette went out to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night and came home with a 76-60 victory. The Golden Eagles are now 5-12 in Big East play and 10-18 overall.
The Hoyas were actually holding a tiny edge for the first 11 minutes or so, leading by as many as six at several points. A Chase Ross layup with
8:25 left before halftime was the trigger point on a 15-1 Marquette run capped by a Nigel James triple in transition to put the Golden Eagles up eight. It was a six point lead when the game hit the under four timeout, and I said in the comments in our Game Thread that MU needs to keep that margin at the break or better it.
For a moment, it looked like they were going to better it. A three-pointer from Adrien Stevens — on his way to 16 points in front of his hometown crowd — had Marquette up nine with two minutes left in the half. The Hoyas got a layup from Malik Mack and a dunk from Vince Iwuchukwu in the final 80 seconds though, and so it was just a five point game, 40-35, heading to the locker rooms.
Slightly ominous at the time, and made more ominous by the Jeremiah Williams three that started the scoring in the second half. All a sudden, it’s Marquette by just two.
Ben Gold answered with a three of his own on the other end, and that was the trigger for another Marquette run. 15-4 Marquette over the next four minutes, and hey, look at that, a double digit lead. Marquette was up 13, 55-42, thanks to a jumper from Chase Ross, and seemingly in control oh wait Georgetown scored six straight.
Not just six straight, but Marquette went three minutes without putting up a point. It’s one thing to give up six straight in 45 seconds because you gave up two threes. This was Marquette whiffing on stemming the tide for a stretch. A bucket from Gold stabilized things, and MU was able to trade points with the Hoyas for a while. A layup from Stevens got it back to 10, a POWERFUL dunk from Nigel James got it to 12, and that was the beginning of the end for Georgetown.
Not just because it was a 12 point game with five minutes left, but because it was in the middle of Marquette holding Georgetown without a field goal for over five and a half minutes. 12-1 Marquette run, and that was that.
Only bad part? Chase Ross subbed out with 1:12 to go after apparently messing up his shoulder when his arm was going down and Iwuchukwu’s arm was going up. Ross immediately went down holding his shoulder — perhaps the same one he had a brace on in the past during his Marquette career — and pointing at it while laying on the ground. At best, it’s a very bad sprain. At worst, it’s a dislocation and that might keep him out because of the inflammation of the joint going in and out of socket. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
All five Marquette starters — which includes Damarius Owens because Royce Parham was a late scratch due to back tightness and he looked miserable on the bench — finished with at least 11 points in this one, led by 20 from Nigel James. The freshman guard shot 9-for-16 from the field and added six rebounds, six assists, and three steals. Ben Gold had 10 points and 12 rebounds, Stevens had the aforementioned 16, and Ross added 14 on a statistically pretty good night for him: 7-for-13 shooting, four rebounds, three assists, two steals.
Oh, and I think the Players Edition uniforms are still undefeated??
Highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Peacock/NBC Sports:
Up Next: Marquette exorcised one early season demon with this win over the Hoyas, and next time out, they’ll get to do it again. On Sunday, MU will be back at Fiserv Forum to host DePaul. Tipoff is set for 3pm Central, and FS1 will have the broadcast on the day that Marquette hangs Markus Howard’s #0 in the rafters. The Blue Demons are 14-13 this season and 6-10 in the Big East after a 71-68 loss at home to Providence last Saturday, and they will visit Creighton on Wednesday before coming up I-94 for Sunday’s game.
