Wildcats take Eagles to school
Marquette ran out of magic against top-10 opponents.
The Golden Eagles were blown away in the second half by Villanova and fell, 85-68, on Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum.
MU (5-5, 1-3 Big East) has dropped three straight games.
The Wildcats (8-1, 3-0) have won six in a row. Villanova, picked by Big East coaches to win the league this season, are ranked third in the USA Today coaches poll and fifth in the Associated Press Top 25.
The Golden Eagles had success against highly ranked opponents earlier this month. They beat then-No. 4 Wisconsin on Dec. 4 and then-No.9 Creighton on Dec. 14.
But Villanova exploited the two biggest issues with MU this season: Taking care of the basketball and a porous defense.
The Golden Eagles had 17 turnovers, leading to 18 points by the Wildcats. Villanova also shot 16 for 31 to score 49 points in the second half.
Senior guard Collin Gillespie led Villanova with 22 points, including 6 three-pointers.
Senior forward Jamal Cain paced MU with 15 points.
MU came out firing. The Golden Eagles made their first four shots and 6 of
8 to take a 15-11 lead at the first timeout.
Senior center Theo John got things started with a jump hook, then the deep shots started falling. Dawson Garcia, Koby McEwen and Cain combined to shoot 4 of 5 on three-pointers in the Golden Eagles' hot start.
Villanova battled back and took a 1716 lead on back-to-back three-pointers by Gillespie.
Cain kept up the hot hand and had eight points on 3-for-4 shooting as the Golden Eagles grabbed a 20-17 lead near the midway point of the first half.
The teams kept battling for the lead. Villanova went up, 28-24, then MU hit two short jumpers to tie the game. Gillespie answered with his fourth threepointer of the first half.
The Wildcats' Justin Moore scored five points to make it a 8-0 run for a 3628 lead. John was able to get a layup in the waning seconds of the first half and the Golden Eagles went into the locker room trailing, 36-30.
Gillespie had 14 points in the opening 20 minutes, and Moore added 11.
Cain was MU's lone double-digit scorer in the first half with 12 points.
The Golden Eagles had nine turnovers in the first half and the Wildcats, one of the most efficient offenses in the country, coughed the ball up only twice. Villanova scored 10 points off MU's turnovers.
The Golden Eagles also missed all five of their free-throw attempts in the first half.
Cain started the second half by nailing a three-pointer, but the Wildcats hit back with a 10-1 run for a 46-34 lead that prompted a timeout by MU with 16:42 remaining.
Garcia hit a three-pointer out of the break, but Gillespie immediately added a triple of his own. Then Gillespie drew an offensive foul on Garcia.
Villanova went up, 54-39, when MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski made a mass substitution, bringing in five new players, including the little-used freshman forward Oso Ighodaro and redshirt freshman Dexter Akanno.
That did not spark the Golden Eagles and the deficit soon ballooned up to 6143 when Villanova's Jeremiah Robinson-Earl made a steal and then threw down a breakaway dunk. That caused Wojciechowski to call another timeout.
He put in five new players again.
Nothing worked for MU and the Golden Eagles soon found themselves down by 20 points and couldn't get back in the game.
The teams have split the series the last two seasons. They will play again at Villanova on Jan. 8.