The Golden Eagles led by as many as 27 points in the second half to coast to victory.
As St. John’s was dismantling Seton Hall at the Prudential Center on Saturday in the wake of Marquette losing to Xavier at home, I thought there was one clear message to take away from that game:
Marquette needed to crush the Pirates on Tuesday night.
Both because Marquette needed to get on track and because Seton Hall is not so good and apparently getting worse by the minute.
And so, when analyst Donny Marshall said the first five minutes of the game were crucial for Seton Hall and the Golden Eagles scored six straight and forced four turnovers in that time….. seemed good for the visiting team.
When Seton Hall scored five straight to pull within one at 12-11, well, that was less good. Thankfully, Marquette never lost the lead and they answered the Pirates with nine straight….. and then another nine after an Isaiah Coleman bucket for an 18-2 run and a 17 point lead.
That’s your ballgame, kids.
Yeah, the lead was just 12 at the half after no one for either team put in a field goal of any kind for the final 4:09. That’s not great, but at least the defense was making things hard for Seton Hall. You’d like to be up more than 12 when you create 14 turnovers, but being up double digits on the road is something you never turn down.
Four points here and six points there early in the second half and BOOM: Marquette by 20 with 14:35 to go. Seven straight, capped by a Royce Parham bucket in transition: Marquette by 27, their largest lead of the game, with nine minutes to go. Chase Ross hit two free throws with 5:43 to go to make it a 26 point ball game, and that was pretty much it for the competitive portion of the proceedings.
Mission Accomplished.
Yes, Seton Hall outscored Marquette 16-7 in the final stretch. No one cares, it didn’t matter, unless you’re a HUGE honk for margin of victory. It was more important for MU to roll their five bench guys out there for the final three minutes and change than to win by 30.
Kam Jones was your leading scorer here with 19 poitnts, but more importantly than that, the little homie from Memphis hit four of his six three-point attempts. Slump over? MU also got 11 points from Ben Gold — who had a driving dunk for one of his four buckets! — and 12 points from David Joplin. Stevie Mitchell was the top rebounder on the squad with six and he tied Jones for the team lead in assists with four.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Peacock?
Up Next: Marquette looks to make it two in a row when they return to Fiserv Forum on Friday night. Villanova will be the opponent, and FS1 will have the 6pm Central time broadcast. The Wildcats have lost three of their last four, including blowing a double digit lead at home against Georgetown on Monday evening.