The No. 10/10 Marquette University men’s basketball team (24-8, 15-6 BIG EAST) opened BIG EAST Tournament play with a 71-65 win over Villanova (18-15, 10-11 BIG EAST) on Thursday night in Madison Square Garden.
Guard Stevie Mitchell finished with 15 points and 6 rebounds and guard Kam Jones added 18 points.
The Golden Eagles opened the second half with a 10-2 run and led by as many as nine points in the opening minutes of the stanza, but saw the Wildcats claw back and eventually take the lead, 51-50, with 7:07 on the clock.
Marquette trailed 29-28 at the intermission, despite shooting just 34.5 percent from the floor overall and 5-of-16 from behind the 3-point line. MU’s defense held the Wildcats to just 40.0 percent and forced six turnovers.
With just under two minutes left in overtime sophomore Chase Ross hit a top of the key three to give the Golden Eagles a 66-63 lead.
Oso Ighodaro sealed the victory for Marquette with a jump hook leaving 18 seconds on the clock.
Notables:
- Marquette has advanced to at least the BIG EAST tourney quarterfinals in 17-of-18 seasons.
- The overtime game was the first of the season for Marquette and first since defeating St. John’s, 72-70, in the BIG EAST quarterfinals last season
- Mitchell finished with 15 points, his 11th double-digit game in the last 17 outings
- Forward Ighodaro (14.4 ppg.) didn’t score until the 3:15 mark of the second half
UP NEXT:
Marquette returns to action on Friday, March 15 in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinal against Providence at 7:00pm CST.
Keep up with the Marquette men’s basketball program through social media by following on X (@MarquetteMBB) and Instagram (@marquette.basketball) and ‘liking’ on Facebook (/MarquetteMensBB). Fans interested in tickets can contact the Marquette Ticket Office online or at 414-288-GOMU (4668).
First appeared on gomarquette.com