Eagles go one and done
Offense stalls in second half
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Great defense beats great offense. It’s a cliché regardless of the sport, but on Friday night at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena it certainly rang true.
South Carolina, which boasts one of the best defenses in the country, smothered Marquette in the second half on the way to a 93-73 victory — the Gamecocks’ first in the NCAA Tournament since 1973 — in front of a raucous, partisan crowd about 100 miles from the South Carolina campus.
The problem for the Golden Eagles was simple. It’s impossible to score when you don’t have the ball.
Marquette (19-13) committed a season-high 18 turnovers, including 12 in the second half. When they weren’t giving possession away, the Golden Eagles failed to get anything going against South Carolina’s aggressive man-to-man. They shot just 3 of 12 from three-point range after halftime and over the final 10 minutes 57 seconds were outscored, 29-10.
While Marquette was scuffling, South Carolina converted the Golden Eagles’ 18 turnovers into 25 points. The Gamecocks, led by senior Sindarius Thornwell’s 29 points, ripped
through the Golden Eagles’ defense — an Achilles heel for Marquette throughout this season — and rattled off 42 points in the paint with ease.
Marquette’s secondhalf implosion began immediately. South Carolina’s first points after halftime — and first lead of the game — came as Marquette center Luke Fischer reached for a rebound and inadvertently tipped in the basket for the Gamecocks. The Golden Eagles then committed back-to-back turnovers, adding three more during the first five minutes of the second half.
Before the game was finished there were travels, bad passes, moving screens, a shot clock violation and an over-and-back penalty. Freshman guard Markus Howard struggled the most, finishing with six turnovers.
Even with those giveaways, Marquette was still within one with just under 11 minutes left. Senior Jajuan Johnson led the comeback, finishing with 16 points, but Marquette couldn’t figure out how to string together stops and open three-pointers stopped falling after a first half in which the Golden Eagles went 8 of 16 from deep.
Marquette’s letdown came following a solid start to the game.
After the two teams scuffled through the first few possessions of the game, Andrew Rowsey opened the scoring with a bang. For the 14th time since Big East play began — and he would add two more before the game was done — he pump faked to draw his defender in the air and drew a foul on Chris Silva while shooting a three-pointer. He hoisted that trey with his left hand and it found the bottom of the net, resulting in a four-point play.
That triple jumpstarted an 8-0 gameopening run for the Golden Eagles, which was aided by the Gamecocks starting 0 of 6 from the field and set the tone for a first half in which Marquette would not trail.
After absorbing a South Carolina run that brought the Gamecocks within three midway through the period, Marquette quickly went on one of its own. In a span of 78 seconds, Katin Reinhardt made a pair of free throws, Luke Fischer added a short jumper and Reinhardt buried a three-pointer to give the Golden Eagles their largest lead of the half at 2616 with 9:23 until halftime.
That’s when things got a lot more interesting.
Following a timeout called by Gamecocks head coach Frank Martin, his players dug in with more intensity on defense. Marquette had already made 5 of its 8 three-point attempts and picked apart the defense for multiple high-quality looks.
Heading into the half, those became harder to come by. Buoyed by their defense, the Gamecocks rattled off a 10-2 run out of that timeout. Marquette freshman Sam Hauser responded with back-to-back threepointers — split up by a steal by Johnson.
From there, South Carolina slowly whittled the margin down as Marquette struggled with fouls. By halftime, four Marquette players — Hauser, Fischer, Rowsey and center Matt Heldt — had each collected a pair of fouls.
As close as things got, though, the Golden Eagles didn’t give up the lead. South Carolina senior Sindarius Thornwell, who scored 10 points in the first half, had a look at a go-ahead three before the buzzer, but it bounced harmlessly off the iron and Johnson stole the rebound away from South Carolina’s Duane Notice.
Hauser, Johnson and Rowsey combined to make six of Marquette’s 8 three-pointers on 16 attempts, with Hauser and Rowsey leading the Golden Eagles with eight points at halftime.
After the break, though, the wheels feel off ending Marquette’s season. South Carolina moves on to play Duke on Sunday.