Well, Look At That: Georgetown 80, Marquette 62

With losses in three of their four games since defeating #1 Villanova, Marquette needed a win on Saturday against Georgetown to get themselves back on track for the NCAA tournament.

They didn’t get it.

Even worse, the Golden Eagles looked like hot garbage for a majority of the game, allowing the Hoyas to use an 11-0 run that bridged halftime to slowly wander off and eventually get the 80-62 win at the final horn. MU drops to 15-10 on the season and just 6-7 in Big East play, the first time they’ve been under .500 since starting off 1-2.

Knowing full well from the first meeting between the two teams that Rodney Pryor would cause problems for the Marquette defense, the Golden Eagles seemingly had no answer for the graduate transfer in this game. He finished with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including splashing three of his four long range attempts. Pryor also hauled in 10 rebounds and snagged two steals. Pryor wasn’t the only problem for the MU defense, as L.J. Peak matched Pryor with 20 points while shooting 7-of-10, while Jessie Govan had a game high 23 points along with eight rebounds.

While Marquette’s defense was bordering on non-existent with Georgetown shooting 54% from the field and 50% on threes, Marquette’s offense wasn’t any help, either. The Golden Eagles shot just 42% from the field over all, and the three-point shooting, usually one of the most accurate in the country, connected on just 21% of 14 attempts. There were bright spots - Jajuan Johnson was fine, Duane Wilson was good - but for the most part, there was nothing to get yourself particularly excited about when the ball left a MU shooter’s hand in this game.

I still believe that 10 Big East wins will be enough to put Marquette into the NCAA tournament. The problem now is that they now have just five games to pick up four wins to get to 10.....

Up Next: ..... and that starts next week Saturday when Marquette hosts Xavier for National Marquette Day. After yet another lackluster performance after the program’s biggest win in years, head coach Steve Wojciechowski and his staff have a full week without a game to prepare their squad for what is now essentially a must-win game.