Marquette basketball losing streak hits 4 games

Marquette Basketball was three seconds away from their first Big East win of the season and snapping a three-game losing streak.

Up three in overtime, Marquette head coach Shaka Smart could have chosen to foul Creighton. That would have sent them to the line to force a situation where the Blue Jays had to make the first free throw, miss the second on purpose, hope for an offensive rebound and a bucket. Chances of that working out according to plan are slim.

Instead, Smart chose to play straight up defense. Alex O’Connell buried a three at the buzzer to force a second overtime and Creighton went onto win 75-69.

It is the third-straight Big East loss for Marquette basketball. It felt like deja vu all over again.

Like the three prior losses to UCLA, Xavier and UConn, the Marquette Golden Eagles got:

• Beaten on the boards 54-44 and allowed Creighton to pull down 17 offensive rebounds. Marquette has been out rebounded 177-149 and has allowed 53 offensive rebounds during this losing streak.
• Poor start to the game. Although against UConn and Xavier, Marquette had a better start. This game was like the slow start against UCLA.
• Sluggish shooting and poor shot selections at times. Marquette made just five three-pointers and have buried 27 three-point shots during the losing streak. You do not want to know how many attempts they have tried.
• Down by double-digits at some point in the game. Creighton built a 17-point second half lead. Just like in the Xavier and UConn, Marquette rallied back but alas, could not finish the job like the previous two games.

The other issue with this loss to Creighton was the defense had no intensity to start the second half. Marquette’s defense looked like it was still in the locker room. That put the Golden Eagles down 17. Smart made an adjustment to the lineup and that is when the rally started.

The Marquette Golden Eagles did get a career performance from Oso Ighodaro. He came off the bench to score 22 points and made 10 of 12 field goals. His dunk with 40 seconds left in regulation tied the game at 58 and ultimately led to overtime.

Otherwise, the offense sputtered again as it shot 38.2% from the field. That goes back to the poor shot selection and the offense tending to go cold for large stretches of the game. During this losing streak, Marquette hoops has had just one game shooting over 45% from the field.

This tough loss goes back to the decision not to foul at the end of the first overtime.

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Now, Marquette’s hopes for making a surprise NCAA Tournament appearance is slipping away.

If the Marquette Golden Eagles can find a way to minimize their shortcomings, they should be able to start winning some Big East games. They have the fight and the talent to win, but the margin for error is so slim that their faults are leading to losses.