Elliott, defense key for MU against St. John’s

The challenges keep coming for Marquette.

With four games remaining in the regular season, the Golden Eagles (15-11, 6-8 Big East) hope to play their way into the NCAA Tournament.

They also have to find a way to slow down red-hot St. John’s sophomore guard Shamorie Ponds when the Red Storm (14-13, 3-11) visits the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Wednesday.

And, to add to the degree of difficulty, MU will likely be without leading scorer Markus Howard, who is doubtful for Wednesday’s game with a right hip contusion.

Ponds torched the Golden Eagles for 44 points when St. John’s earned an 8678 victory on Feb. 10. He has scored 129 points during his team’s four-game winning streak.

“Obviously he’s a huge key to the game,” MU coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “He scored half their points in New York. He’s playing as well as any guard in our conference. He makes them go.”

MU tried everything on defense to slow Ponds down, even mixing in a 2-3 zone.

Nothing worked that game, but the Golden Eagles’ zone defense was crucial in the second half of a 90-86 victory over Creighton on Saturday.

It helped MU’s zone that freshman guard Greg Elliott played more after Howard went down late in the first half.

The 6-foot-4, longlimbed Elliott can cover more ground than the 5-11 Howard.

“We played really hard in it,” Wojciechowski said of the zone. “It doesn’t matter what defense you play, when you are playing with great effort and intensity, it’s going to look better.”

Creighton scored 33 points on 33 possessions in the second half against MU’s zone defense after dropping 53 on 33 possessions in the first 20 minutes.

“The Creighton game was the best we’ve played in a zone,” Wojciechowski said. “Analytically, the zone hasn’t proven necessarily to be any better than our man (over this season).

“Some of it is just Creighton is a very good halfcourt offensive basketball team. They create a lot of mismatches because their best shooter is their center. So (the zone) allowed us to not defend as many ball screens, it keeps our bigs by the basket. But the key to the zone is how hard you play in it. It’s the guys playing the zone.”

Elliott will likely be inserted into the starting lineup if Howard doesn’t play.

The freshman had 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting against Creighton. He’s improved dramatically this season despite being bothered by a thumb injury suffered in the exhibition game against Lindenwood.

“I’ve got to help my team do more, so I’m going to have to score more,” Elliott said. “But it starts on defense. Knowing that Ponds had 44 on us last time, it starts with stopping him. Once we start stopping him, our offense will come.”

Wojciechowski was cautious in putting too much pressure on Elliott.

“It’s not Greg’s job to replace Markus,” the coach said. “It’s Greg’s job to be the best Greg he can be. And that’s a lot to throw on a freshman’s shoulders, especially one that’s playing with a hand and a half.

“Greg is one of of our better drivers. I think he can create plays for other people. He’s got to play to his strengths and hopefully he can do it as well as he did last game.”

Elliott, who is as laid back off the court as he is intense on it, wasn’t worried about taking on a larger role.

“I’m cool doing with whatever my team needs me to do,” he said. “If they need me to score more, I’ll score more. If they need to pass more, it doesn’t matter. I just want to win.”