Another opportunity wasted. That was the overwhelming feeling of Marquette fans after the Warriors early exit from the BIG EAST Tournament Thursday. Marquette fell to Georgetown 62-59, in one of the more frustrating games of the season for MU.
After jumping out to a 20-9 lead early, Marquette made a mistake that proved to be costly. They allowed Georgetown to dictate the tempo of the game, and the Hoyas clawed their way back into it, eventually taking the lead at 24-22 with 19:04 to play. Georgetown held a tenuous lead for most of the second half, and started to widen it when Marquette coach Tom Crean decided to go away from the effective 2-3 zone in favor of a man-to-man defense. Georgetown was then able to get layup after layup off of backdoor cuts, and eventually took a 55-48 lead on a Brandon Bowman dunk with :50 left.
Marquette then went into desperation mode, and was able to cut the lead down to a single point at 60-59 on a Steve Novak three with six seconds remaining. Novak then committed his fifth foul to stop the clock, and send Brandon Bowman to the line for two free-throws. Bowman sank both, leaving MU one last chance to tie. Jerel McNeal got a clean look at a deep three-pointer from about 27 feet, but it rimmed out, sending the Warriors back to Milwaukee early.
Novak led Marquette with 18 points, on 6-11 shooting, and Jerel McNeal added 10 points. The true bright spot for Marquette was the continued great play of Wesley Matthews off the bench. Matthews chipped in 14 points and six rebounds, and help keep MU in the game in the second half. It was a forgettable BIG EAST Tournament debut for Dominic James, who finished with eight points on 2-15 shooting, and had four critical misses at the free-throw line. Georgetown was led by Ashanti Cook and Jeff Green, who had 16 points each, as well as Bowman who finished with 14.
There were a number of factors that contributed to the Marquette loss. First and foremost, Marquette was unable to secure the defensive rebounds at critical points in the game. Georgetown got second and third chances to score, and capitalized on them. Georgetown was also able to play at their pace, which ultimately was the difference. When Marquette was pushing the ball, they were able to have much more success offensively. Also, when they did trap and press, they had success in forcing turnovers. Unfortunately, MU got away from that in the first half, and Georgetown dictated the tempo by slowing the game down, and executed well in the halfcourt. Marquette???s inability to defend the backdoor cuts also proved costly, as a lot of times the passer would be allowed to make the pass far too easily from the high post. Finally, Georgetown did a marvelous job denying the ball to Steve Novak. While Novak still scored 18, he had to work hard for the 11 shots he took. With Novak as the focal point of the offense, MU needs to get him more than 11 shots to be successful.
Marquette will now play the waiting game this weekend, as they will find out their NCAA Tournament opponent on Sunday evening at 5:00 when the Tournament field is announced.
Popularity: 8% [?]
