The Golden Eagles did what was expected against the Catamounts — great defense and hot shooting — but took on an injury before the end of the blowout win.
For about 38 minutes on Saturday afternoon at Fiserv Forum, we got pretty much everything you want from a game against a tune up type opponent. Marquette men’s basketball was cruising against Western Carolina, just like you would expect a #10 ranked team to do, they were doing it by getting the turnovers they knew they could get from the Catamounts, and the shooting was going absolutely A-OK on MU’s end.
For about 38 minutes, they had the last component of what you want from these things: Nobody gets hurt.
And then Zaide Lowery went down holding his knee and in obvious pain, while the walk-ons were sitting at the scorer’s table waiting to check in with the Golden Eagles up 35. Lowery was checked by the trainer, and eventually escorted down the hallway to the locker room while not putting any weight on his left leg.
The Lowery injury is the most important thing to talk about in this game, beating out Kam Jones putting up a double-double on 20 points and 10 assists. He had six rebounds, and if this was a game where Marquette needed more than 25 minutes from him, Jones probably could have pulled off his second triple-double of the season.
But they didn’t need that from him. They were up 37-21 late in the first half, and then they threw a 14-2 run at the Catamounts that bridged halftime. That left the margin at 51-30, and just to make sure that WCU understood what was going to happen to them in this game, Marquette unleashed a 22-3 run at them in the second half. 84-46 when that one was over, and by then, Western Carolina had pushed themselves along to the 21 turnovers that they would end up at by the end of the game. That’s a rate of 26% of their possessions ending in MU’s hands instead of a shot for the Catamounts, and yes, that 22-3 run is where we got treated to a Dead Skunk — nine straight stops — and Jonah Lucas stomping all over the Skunk card he keeps behind the bench during games.
Jones was joined in double digit scoring town by Ben Gold (12) and Stevie Mitchell (10). Jones’ six rebounds were actually the team high, so he’ll have to use that to dry his tears over missing out on the triple double.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Fox Sports?
Up Next: This game against WCU was the final contest of the season against an opponent that looks like they’re overmatched on paper. From here on out, everything else is Big East caliber or close enough to it to count. First up on that list? A visit to Iowa State on Wednesday night. Tipoff on that one is set for 7pm Central time, and ESPN+ will carry the broadcast. The Cyclones are 5-1 on the year after going 2-1 at the Maui Invitational this week. They probably won’t be #5 in the country come Monday, but their loss was to #4 Auburn so they probably won’t drop too far.