It was a deep freeze
Golden Eagles frigid from long distance
For the third straight season, the Marquette men's basketball team has taken a late-season free fall.
The worse news is that it started earlier this time and there's a chance it could get worse.
The Golden Eagles suffered through an ugly shooting performance and Seton Hall had every answer down the stretch to earn a 57-51 victory on Sunday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
MU (9-12, 5-10 Big East) has lost six of its last seven games. If those numbers sound frustratingly familiar to the school's fans, it's because that's how
the Golden Eagles have ended the past two seasons.
With a chance to earn a Big East title in the 2018-19 season, MU lost its last four regular-season games then won one game in the conference tournament before getting blown out by Murray State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Last season, the Golden Eagles dropped six of their last seven to end the regular season before the coronavirus pandemic shut down college basketball's postseason.
"I don't think there's one big reason for it all," said MU coach Steve Wojciechowski, whose team tumbled to 10th in the 11-team Big East. "Every season is different and the rough patch our group has hit is different than rough patches that our teams have hit in the past.
"Same can be said for winning streaks. Every year is different. We got to try to get our guys healthy. And we got to continue to fight."
MU's biggest issue against the the Pirates (12-8, 9-5) was frigid outside shooting. The Golden Eagles shot 18 for 60 (30%), including an unsightly 3 for 25 (12%) on three-pointers. They missed 16 straight long-distance shots during a cold snap in the second half.
MU played solid defense and got Seton Hall into foul trouble in the second half, but couldn't take advantage by attacking the basket and getting to the free-throw line.
"A lot of times, because of their size, you're not going to be able to finish at the rim," Wojciechowski said. "With (7foot-2 center Ike) Obiagu especially. He does a great job of protecting the basket.
"So when you get in there, you got to kick it out. Because a shot over a big guy is a really low-percentage shot with their size and their shot-blocking. And I thought we had good looks, we just did not knock them down."
The Golden Eagles kept hanging around and got within 49-47 on a dunk from senior center Theo John with 49 seconds remaining. Instead of a defensive stop, MU senior forward Jamal Cain was whistled for a foul and the Pirates' Shavar Reynolds sank two free throws.
Seton Hall was 6 for 6 from the charity stripe in the final minute to ice the victory.
Sophomore guard D.J. Carton led MU with 16 points and John added 14.
The Golden Eagles were short-handed off the bench again with freshman forwards Justin Lewis (ankle) and Oso Ighodaro (foot) sitting out. Lewis, the Golden Eagles' top reserve, has missed four of the last five games and only played seven minutes against Creighton on Feb. 6. Ighodaro has missed three straight games.
"I don't have a timetable with his return," Wojciechowski said of Lewis. "We have to do what's in Justin's best interest, in terms of throwing him out there and him not being capable of playing in a game. But obviously we miss him. We miss him a lot."
Without Lewis, MU struggled inside offensively against Seton Hall's size. Freshman forward Dawson Garcia, who had a collegiate-high 28 points against Villanova on Wednesday, was held scoreless. The 6-foot-11 Garcia missed his six attempts and played just 26 minutes while sitting for long stretches in the second half.
"They're huge," Wojciechowski said. "It's enough of a task with Mamu (6foot-11 Seton Hall senior Sandro Mamukelashvili). Because he's Dawson's size and four years older and has four years in a strength and conditioning program behind him.
"That in and of itself is not easy, but then you throw a 7-foot-2 guy behind there and (Garcia) had a couple looks at the basket early and had them rejected. And so they make it really hard to score at the rim."
MU is two games into a stretch of five straight matchups on the road. The Golden Eagles will try to get out of their latest funk at Butler on Wednesday.
"You have a choice," Wojciechowski said. "You can fight. You can stand your ground. Or you can flee.
"I believe our group is going to continue to fight."