UConn falls to Marquette, exits in semifinals again
NEW YORK — Marquette had won the Big East regular-season championship that the UConn men’s basketball team badly wanted.
The Huskies were hoping to get revenge by beating the Golden Eagles and advancing to Saturday night’s Big East Tournament championship game. But Marquette wouldn’t let it happen.
UConn’s Joey Calcaterra misfired on a pair of 3point attempts in the final 90 seconds, and Jordan Hawkins missed a long, wild shot at the buzzer as Marquette held on for a 70-68 victory in .the Big East semifinals on Friday night.
“Disappointing loss,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “I just thought Marquette really, really jumped us to start the game. I don’t think we anticipated their ball pressure. I thought they put us on our heels.”
That it came in the semifinals for the third year in a row hurt even more for UConn (25-8). And that it came inside Madison Square Garden, the Huskies’ “home away from home” that Hurley proclaimed UConn “owned” following a quarterfinal win over Providence a night earlier, perhaps stung the most.
Marquette coach Shaka Smart apparently took note of those comments.
“It felt like a lot of people were giving UConn the game coming in,” Smart, the Big East’s Coach of the Year, noted. “And there were comments made about who owns the Garden and that kind of stuff. And, you know, we said, ‘Wait a minute, we won this league.’ So, we’re not taking a back seat to anybody.”
A back-and-forth first half ended with an Alex Karaban 3-pointer and a 38-38 tie, but top-seeded Marquette hit its first six shots of the latter half. UConn went to an expansive zone defense that was effective, helping the Huskies claw back from a 10point deficit to tie the game at 60 on a Calcaterra pull-up trey.
But the fourth-seeded Huskies could never get over the hump and never led in the second half. Kam Jones’ long 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer put Marquette (27-6) ahead for good. Karaban’s putback (off a wild miss by Tristen Newton) tied it at 64, but Chase Ross countered with a corner 3pointer (his lone field goal of the game).
Adama Sanogo scored inside with 2:37 remaining and, stunningly, those were the final points of the game. Marquette’s Oso Ighodaro missed the front end of a one-and-one with just under two minutes left, and UConn came down the floor with a chance to tie or take the lead. Calcaterra’s 3-point attempt late in the shot clock missed badly with 1:23 left, but he’d get a much better look about a minute later.
With 39 seconds left, Calcaterra had a wideopen look from the corner that was just off the mark.
“I thought it was going in. It just hit back rim,” the grad transfer said. “One of the last two shots, I’ve just got to hit one ...”
UConn had one last chance, but failed to use its last timeout and settled for an off-balance Hawkins 3-ball that missed badly.
“I thought we had some great looks at 3’s there, down two, in transition,” Hurley rued. “A couple of 3’s get us to the lead. this time of year, obviously, our defense early in the second half let us down, but we toughened up a lot.”
Maybe the game got off to a prophetic start for the Huskies when high-flying Andre Jackson Jr. missed an alley-oop dunk in the early seconds. He was fouled on the play, but missed both free throws, and Marquette’s Oso Ighodaro slammed home the game’s first points on the other end of the floor.
Jackson finished with just two points, two assists and one rebound in just 15 minutes of action before fouling out.