No. 7 Marquette men’s basketball defeated St. Thomas 84-79 Thursday evening at Fiserv Forum.
Here’s what you need to know about the win:
- Senior forward Oso Ighodaro led Marquette with 21 points, shooting 7-for-10 from the field and 7-for-11 from the free-throw line.
- Senior guard Tyler Kolek tallied a season-high 10 assists.
- St. Thomas shot 47% from 3-point range in the second half, compared to just 29% in the first.
- With the win, the Golden Eagles finish the non-conference portion of their season with a record of 9-2.
Hanging on
Marquette went into the locker room at halftime with a 45-33 lead. However, over the course of the next 10 minutes the Golden Eagles would get outscored 19-13, making it a four-point game with 10:44 to go.
Marquette would put itself back in the driver’s seat, outscoring St. Thomas 12-6 to regain its 12-point lead.
The Tommies wouldn’t go away though, as back-to-back 3-pointers by graduate student forward Parker Bjorklund and junior guard Ben Nau brought St. Thomas back to within six with 3:54 to play.
After a flagrant 1 foul committed by Ighodaro, Bjorklund scored five straight points to cut Marquette’s lead to just one.
However, the Golden Eagles would continue to hit timely shots down the stretch to pull out the win.
A 3-pointer by sophomore guard Chase Ross put the Golden Eagles up by four with 2:41. After some back-and-forth action in the following minutes, Kolek went 4-for-4 from the charity stripe to avoid the home floor upset and solidify the win.
The Tommies outscored the Golden Eagles 46-39 in the second half and shot 57.1% from the field, much better than Marquette’s 37%.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.