It seemed like nothing was going right for the Golden Eagles at Madison Square Garden….. but they
5:30pm Central time tipoffs for road games aren’t the most convenient thing in the world, at least sometimes. That’s why I wasn’t at home when #11 Marquette tipped off against #12 St. John’s on Tuesday night, and that’s why I didn’t turn on the radio to stay abreast of the goings on until it was 3-2 MU.
I then listened to St. John’s rattle off the next seven points for a 9-0 run, and while I had Homer and Tony on the car radio, Kam Jones picked up two fouls.
I turned it off.
I got home just in time to see Chase Ross score in the paint and give Marquette a 31-30 lead at intermission.
What.
On.
Earth.
Is.
Happening.
THEN I found out that Jones picked up his third foul with more than four minutes left in the first half, so I repeat my point: What On Earth Is Happening?
The answer is, apparently, a 10 point first half from Zaide Lowery, and as Jason Benetti pointed out as the second half was starting on the FS1 broadcast, Lowery came into the game with a grand total of one (1) double digit scoring game in his entire Marquette career to this point.
And then the Johnnies scored the first eight points of the second half while holding MU scoreless for more than four minutes, and let me tell you what: I was pretty sure that the whole thing was my fault. Only bad things were happening when I was dialed into the play-by-play, either audio or video!
Threes from Royce Parham kept Marquette in it. Kam Jones eventually got to play and got in a rhythm. A less than 80 second long 5-0 MU run pulled the Golden Eagles within one point, 51-50, with less than seven minutes left.
Somehow, even with me tilting the game 15 points in the direction of St. John’s with my viewing habits, this thing was completely up for grabs.
Kam Jones kept being Kam Jones, and he connected on a triple at the 5:20 mark to put MU out in front.
But Marquette couldn’t close. A field goal at any point probably would have helped. That Kam three-pointer was MU’s final bucket of the game. They had quality looks at big spots, but the shots just didn’t go down. A 6-0 run by the Johnnies capped by a dunk from Aaron Scott made it a seven point game with 1:37 left, Marquette refused to take the layup that STJ was pretty much handing out and instead kept cycling to get a three, and time passed and they didn’t score anyway. That’s that.
The good news is that Marquette overcame foul trouble for multiple players and stayed within a possession or two of the #12 team in the country on the road for 90+% of this game. The bad news is that MU outshot the Red Storm — 48% effective field goal percentage vs 44% — and protected the ball better than the Red Storm — 15% turnover rate vs 21% — but they got killed on the glass to the tune of 16 second chance points and left a ton of points on the table by way of what really just felt like boneheaded brain farts over and over again.
How about some highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Fox Sports?
Up Next: Marquette has now lost consecutive games at full strength for the first time since the last two contests of Shaka Smart’s first season in Milwaukee. They will try to stop that from being three straight games this weekend when the Golden Eagles travel to Omaha for some bird-on-bird violence against Creighton. Tipoff on that one is set for 1pm Central, and Fox will have the broadcast. The Bluejays are riding a seven game winning streak at the moment, but they have to get through a Wednesday night road trip against Providence.
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