Justin Lewis propels the Golden Eagles to their seventh straight victory.
33 points from the Golden Eagles’ redshirt freshman forward Justin Lewis proved to be too much for Seton Hall to handle Wednesday night at the Prudential Center, as Marquette came out on top by a score of 73-63. Newly ranked #22 Marquette was able to come out on top to collect their seventh consecutive win, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Shaka Smart’s team in Newark.
The Golden Eagles held 20 point leads on two separate occasions, just to see both of those advantages slip to single digits, largely due to sloppy play on the offensive end. The score got as close as 69-63 with 40 seconds remaining before Justin Lewis sealed the game at the charity stripe, part of a career night for Lewis.
Aside from Lewis’ career high 33 on 11-19 shooting and 4-7 from deep, Marquette’s second highest scorer was Olivier-Maxence Prosper with 10 on 4-5 shooting and 2-2 from three-point range. Lewis also pulled down 9 boards to lead the squad. A standout stat for Marquette however was Kur Kuath’s seven blocks, with six of them coming in the first half. Stifling defense like that on the interior could be a crucial asset for MU moving forward.
As far as the stats go for the Seton Hall Pirates, they were led by Jamir Harris’ 16 points of the bench, including four three-point baskets. Jared Rhoden was right behind with 14 points and nine rebounds on a 5-17 shooting line.
The ultimate decider in this contest was the overall shooting splits. Marquette shot 27-58 (46.6%) from the field, while Seton Hall shot just 20-59 (33.9%). Turnovers were a problem for both sides as the Golden Eagles turned the ball over 16 times, and the Pirates 15.
Theres certainly a lot to clean up for both sides, but you’d have to think Shaka Smart likes how his team is racking up Big East Ws right now. They face Providence on the road next in their next tilt this Saturday. As for Seton Hall, they now sit at 12-7 with a matchup in DC against the Georgetown Hoyas scheduled for Tuesday, February 1st.