The back half of the Big East schedule has proven to be a difficult stretch for Marquette. After suffering a 15-point road loss to Villanova on Friday, the Golden Eagles had dropped four of their last six games, slid down to third place in the Big East, and fell to #21 in this week’s AP Poll. Looking to right some wrongs and to gain some consistency heading down the stretch into the postseason, Marquette(20-7, 12-5 Big East) welcomed Providence(12-15, 6-10 Big East) to Fiserv Forum on Tuesday night.
Providence, without their star senior forward Bryce Hopkins, who is out for the season with a knee injury, has had problems competing in the Big East this season, especially on the road. Marquette, needing to gain some solidarity within their offense, caught this matchup at a good time and took advantage.
Marquette attempts the 15th most 3-point shots in the nation, and from the opening tip, the Golden Eagles were given the opportunity through plenty of open looks to inflate that number. After trading some punches to start the game, Marquette began to open up a lead behind 12 made threes in the first half on a whopping 26 attempts(46%). They attempted 30 shots in total in the opening half, putting their deep shot choice rate at a staggering 87%. And it wasn’t just one guy either. The wealth was spread to five different Marquette players knocking down at least one shot from behind the arc. The efficiency was a nice thing to see, especially early in the game, where Marquette has struggled often this season, and that efficiency, coupled with some stingy defense, took the Golden Eagles into the break with a 43-32 lead.
Although the pace of 3-point shooting slowed in the second half, it definitely didn’t go away. Marquette would knock down 5 more shots from behind the arc, totalling a Big East best 17 made threes on the night. They also attempted a school record 41 shots from behind the arc. When asked about the amount of 3-point shots attempted in the game in the postgame presser, head coach Shaka Smart said, “Yeah, it was the way the game worked out, it wasn’t by design…”. The way things worked out pushed the Marquette lead even farther behind an even better defensive half, and the Golden Eagles cruised to a 82-52 victory.
Marquette combined for an efficient 22 assists on 27 made field goals and at one time led by 31 points. Ben Gold had the breakout night that everyone has been waiting for, scoring a team-high 17 points, a new career-high, on 7-9 shooting while grabbing 6 rebounds and tallying one spectacular coast-to-coast drive to the basket. Kam Jones also added 17 points and 7 assists, and fellow senior guard Stevie Mitchell chalked up 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists.
The efficient night led to the fan-favorite walk-ons entering the game in the final minutes, and after a hard foul and push to the floor of Marquette’s Casey O’Malley, tempers flared between head coaches Shaka Smart and Kim English. Both coaches had to be held back, and double technical fouls were issued against Providence in what Shaka referred to as “friendly banter”.
As we said after the win over Seton Hall, this seemed like a get-right game for Marquette. Efficient shooting, sharing the basketball, and winning the turnover and rebounding battles wins you games, but can the Golden Eagles continue similar production consistently down the stretch to make a run? Consistency will be put to the test on Saturday night as Marquette travels to D.C. for a Big East road matchup with Georgetown.
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