No. 24 Marquette looks to get back on track as it hosts No. 12 Villanova on Wednesday night in Milwaukee.
The Golden Eagles (15-7, 7-4 Big East) saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end Sunday in a 65-63 road loss to then-No. 17 Providence. Justin Lewis had a chance to tie the game with one second remaining, but his floater just missed.
Darryl Morsell paced Marquette with 14 points and six steals. Lewis and Tyler Kolek both added 13 points and six rebounds, and Kur Kuath, Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Kam Jones all chipped in six points.
“I thought Justin got some good looks from outside that he’s been making,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said. “The big numbers he’s been putting up lately, he’s made some threes. He was 0-for-4 (Sunday). They were good looks. Looks that we’ll take. He just didn’t knock them in.”
Second-chance points killed the Golden Eagles, as they were outscored 22-1 in that category.
“I think the biggest difference (Sunday) is they got 14 offensive rebounds, but they did a heck of a job scoring off of them,” Smart said. “They scored 22 points. It’s one thing if a team gets an offensive rebound and they don’t score. Make them miss again. And again. We didn’t do that.”
Although Lewis’ play has stood out over the past month, Morsell has been extremely productive over the past six games. The Maryland transfer is averaging 14.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in that span, raising his season norms to 13.4 and 3.6, respectively. Lewis tops the team in both categories at 16.5 and 7.9, respectively.
Villanova (16-5, 9-2) has been on a roll, winning nine of its past 10. The loss in that span came at home against Marquette, 57-54 on Jan. 19, but the Wildcats have won all three of their games since then.
Coach Jay Wright’s team is coming off a 73-62 win over visiting St. John’s on Saturday night. The Wildcats’ Collin Gillespie led all scorers with 17 points, and Eric Dixon had 15 points and seven rebounds. Reserve Caleb Daniels also posted 15 points in 29 minutes.
Shots were falling from deep for Villanova, as the Wildcats shot 47.8 percent (11 of 23) from beyond the 3-point arc.
“I think that’s something that we were focusing on in practice is just being solid, making smart decisions with the ball,” Gillespie said. “Our guys, our green team in practice did a really good job of helping us prepare, really getting into us, and I think that’s really what helped us out.”
Gillespie has been extremely consistent all season, and he has scored in double figures in each of his last 11 games. He is averaging a team-high 17.1 points per game on the season and has eclipsed the 20-point mark seven times.
Villanova’s Bryan Antoine could miss the Marquette game after sitting out the St. John’s game due to an ankle injury. The 6-foot-5 guard is averaging 2.3 points and 2.2 rebounds through nine games this season.
–Field Level Media
