The Golden Eagles led by 13 out of the gate, trailed by as many as 5, and then won by 19. Fun?
Well, if you wanted a show for the students only game at the Al McGuire Center as well as the Big East’s debut on Peacock, you got it on Friday night. YOUR #18 ranked Marquette Golden Eagles exploded out of the gate with six straight stops on defense and 13 unanswered points against George Mason.
Right about the moment where you start saying “hey, I’d like Marquette to experience a little bit of pushback from their opponent in this game,” that’s when George Mason ripped off 10 straight points of their own. Hey, hey, hey, not like that! Just a little push back, Patriots!
Nope, they kept coming.
Ultimately, the visitors ended the first half on a 37-23 run, so to speak, and yep, that means Marquette trailed at intermission, 37-36. That is, uh, not what you want to happen when you started off 13-0. George Mason is a top 100 team, a team picked to finish in the middle of the Atlantic 10 this year, they’re not a team of goofs. But getting outscored like that, or like 35-20 in the last 15 minutes before the break, that’s not good, no matter how you square it.
Things did not get better for Marquette after halftime, at least not right away. GMU took their biggest lead of the game just under two minutes after intermission as Darius Maddox dropped in a pair of free throws to make it 41-36. That lead lasted exactly 93 seconds, as a pair of free throws from Caedin Hamilton — half of his points in the game! — and a three from David Joplin — one of 5 on his way to a game high 27 points — knotted things back up at 41. Chase Ross added a dunk off a steal that he created, and another three for Joplin coming out of a timeout caused by a Zaide Lowery steal, and it was 46-41 Marquette. Almost like George Mason’s lead never happened at all.
In fact, from Hamilton’s freebies onwards, Marquette outscored George Mason 46-22 over the final 17:35, and if you wanted to say 46-20 because MU just let Jared Billups have a dunk with nine seconds left, you’re not entirely wrong.
In that run: Marquette shot 57% from the field and 43% from behind the arc. The Golden Eagles came up with six of their 13 steals in the game during that time, too. I know we talk about Marquette as a second half team under the direction of head coach Shaka Smart, and this was a textbook example of “well, what if we just do all the stuff we know works for 17 straight minutes and shred the other team to bits?”
By the way: This was still a competitive game with four minutes left. K.D. Johnson sank two free throws at the 4:31 mark to make it 66-61. This game was still very much up for grabs. MU ran off 16 straight, connecting on all five of their shots and three of their four free throws, before Billups got that last bucket. ZIP, game over, Marquette covers, tip your server, good night everyone.
David Joplin was your leading scorer for the entire game with his 27 here, just barely passing by the 24 from Kam Jones. Jop got to a double-double on 10 rebounds, and all 10 caroms were grabbed up after halftime. Somehow I think Shaka Smart reminded Jop of the Chicken Wing Metaphor in the locker room, where MU needs Jop to eat every single last piece of meat on the bone this season. Mission accomplished here, as he also added three steals. Jones led all players with eight assists, while Chase Ross had 11/5/4/5, and yes, that is five steals for the Texan. Ben Gold was a game changer even while shooting 2-for-7 from long range in this game. The big Kiwi had four blocks and five rebounds while finishing with 10 points.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Peacock?
Up Next: Marquette will take the rest of the weekend off before reconvening at Fiserv Forum on Monday night to wrap up the Marquette Challenge. It’ll be Central Michigan coming to town, and the Chippewas are coming off a 73-72 home loss to the Stony Brook team that MU smashed by 40.