Just six days ago, on senior day, the then-No. 20 Marquette Golden Eagles lost to the then-No. 6 Saint John’s Red Storm in an overtime thriller in Milwaukee.
Friday night, the stakes are much higher.
After outlasting the No. 4 seed Xavier Musketeers 89-87 in the quarterfinal on Thursday, fifth-seeded Marquette (23-9) and the No. 1 seed Saint John’s (28-4) will square off for the third time this season in the Big East Tournament semifinal, with a third straight title game appearance for Shaka Smart’s squad on the line.
What Marquette can learn from senior night
In last Saturday’s 86-84 loss, the largest separator between the Red Storm and the Golden Eagles was the offensive glass for the former and Big East regular season champions.
St. John’s scored 27 second-chance points in the road victory on 19 created opportunities, compared to Marquette’s 25 defensive rebounds.
Marquette was able to grab 17 offensive boards, yet it only scored 10 points on the extra possessions.
Conference player of the year, junior guard R.J. Luis Jr., and junior forward Zuby Ejiofor, an All-Big East first team honor, combined for 13 offensive rebounds.
The Golden Eagles also struggled from the free-throw line, shooting 12-for-22 from the charity stripe.
“There’s a lot of things we take from that game that we want to do better,” Smart said after the win against Xavier. “I thought that game actually helped us today be better down the stretch, making free throws specifically.”
Marquette made crucial free throws down the stretch of the Xavier win, shooting 11-of-13 from the foul line.
Scouting the ‘Johnnie’s’
Rick Pitino has built one of the more bulletproof teams in the country.
The Red Storm’s four losses were by a combined seven points and was the second team in conference history to win 18 league matchups.
Pitino’s squad has the second-best defensive efficiency in the country according to Kenpom, and features a three-headed monster of all-conference honorees; Ejiofor, who was also named the conference’s most improved player, Luis Jr. and senior guard Kadary Richmond, who was on the All-Big East second team.
The three combined for 57.1 percent of the team’s regular season scoring.
St. John’s loves to score in the paint, with 59.3 percent of its points coming inside the perimeter, and similar to Marquette, it doesn’t shoot the 3-pointer well. Both teams are sub-200 in the country in triple shooting, with the Golden Eagles shooting 32.8 percent to the Red Storm’s 30.0 percent from the perimeter.
Hilson’s Have To’s:
Marquette:
- Control the defensive glass
- Marquette cannot afford to give up 27 second-chance points again
- Defend the paint
- Force St. John’s to shoot threes and play away from where they are comfortable
St. John’s
- Limit Kam Jones
- The senior guard is coming off a 32-point, nine rebound and seven assist performance last weekend and a 28-point, five assist outing in the quarterfinal
- Protect the home floor
- St. John’s has yet to lose on the home floor this season, and there will be nothing neutral about tomorrow night’s semifinal in terms of crowd sizes
How to follow:
Tip-off is slated for 5:30 p.m. CST from Madison Square Garden.
Watch: The game will be nationally televised on FOX. Gus Johnson and Jim Jackson will be on the broadcast.
Listen: Tune into Marquette Wire Radio where Trevor Hilson and Matthew Baltz will have the call.
Live updates: Follow @MatthewBaltzMU, @RaquelRuizMU and @MUWireSports for live updates during the game.
This story was written by Trevor Hilson. He can be reached at trevor.hilson@marquette.edu or @hilsontrevor on Twitter/X.