This is about as straightforward as recaps get because there’s not much in the way of storytelling here. Marquette ripped Creighton straight in half in the first half with an 18-0 run to turn a 23-16 advantage
into a 41-16 demolition derby with 3:27 left to go before halftime. The Golden Eagles maxed out the lead in the first 20 minutes at 29, which they got once before the halftime margin settled there after Chase Ross buried an off-balance three-pointer off an inbound right before the horn.
Royce Parham scored the first points of the second half on his way to 19, and that gave the Golden Eagles their largest lead of the game at 31 points, 54-23.
And then Creighton spent the next 15 minutes crawling back into the game.
Seven in a row here, five straight there, and so on, and two free throws from Austin Swartz cut the margin to just 16 points. 31 with 19:11 to go and now just 16…. but only 4:19 left. It was very much air being let out of a balloon after the fun and excitement of Marquette hitting everything (69% shooting!) and Creighton hitting nothing (30.3% shooting and just 12% on threes!) in the first half. However, it was either a very large balloon or a very slow leak. Creighton walked themselves back into the game, and maybe if this was an NBA length game at 48 minutes, they would have been on to something.
But it’s not, and MU traded some buckets with the Bluejays to keep them at bay, and then juuuust to make sure nobody thought this thing was close, the Golden Eagles scored the final eight points of the game, including a hellacious windmill dunk by Nigel James and two free throws by Adrien Stevens, both directly as the result of two of the last three of Creighton’s 14 turnovers in the game.
Short version: Marquette stomped them early and dinked around and drained the clock the rest of the way.
Your leading scorer here is Nigel James, as the closing burst pushed him up to 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting, and he added a game high seven assists plus five rebounds and three steals to the proceedings. Royce Parham had a game high seven rebounds to lead Marquette there, while Chase Ross had 13/6/2 and two steals and Adrien Stevens chipped in 14/1/3 and four steals.
Highlights, and there are a lot of them, including both James’ alleyoop to Chase Ross in the first half and James’ windmill late, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and TNT Sports:
Up Next: Marquette will take a crack at back-to-back wins for the first time since the first two games of the season when they visit Seton Hall this weekend. That game is scheduled for 11am Central time on Saturday, January 31, and Peacock will have the broadcast. Seton Hall has lost their last four games as I type this, and they will host Xavier on Wednesday night before the Golden Eagles make it to The Rock.
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