NEWARK, NJ – The Marquette men’s basketball team faced two bugbears that have bedeviled it all season.
It was a close game. It was away from Fiserv Forum.
That combination proved too much again for the Golden Eagles as they fell to Seton Hall, 69-64, on Jan. 31 at the Prudential Center.
MU (8-15, 3-9 Big East) remains winless in 10 road and neutral-court games. This one was tied with four minutes remaining, but the Golden Eagles couldn’t get the big stop or clutch bucket they needed.
So MU dropped a winnable game against the Pirates (16-6, 6-5) for the second time this season. Seton Hall won Dec. 30 at Fiserv Forum, with MU falling apart in the final four minutes.
“Clearly our guys, they expect to win more than they did the last time we played Seton Hall a month ago,” MU head coach Shaka Smart said. “Now it’s about continuing to improve in the defensive and offensive areas that we have to carry over to win.”
Shaka Smart wants better performances out of halftime
The game followed a familiar script for MU.
The Golden Eagles looked great in the first half, taking a 41-33 lead while shooting 15 for 28 (53.6%) overall and 8 for 12 on 3-pointers.
But the advantage quicky disappeared in the opening moments of the second half. That has been a troublesome spot, especially recently.
In an 80-75 loss at DePaul on Jan. 16, the Golden Eagles were outscored, 28-11, in the first 10 minutes of the second half. In MU’s next game at home against Providence, the Friars had a 25-16 advantage in that same time frame, though MU held on to win in overtime.
“Coming out of the half, especially when we’re up, we got to continue to, we always say, ‘Step on their throats,'” MU senior Ben Gold said. “Be the aggressive team.
“Teams aren’t just going to give up and lay down. That’s usually when they throw their biggest punch, coming out of the half. So we got to be able to continue to fight back and, honestly, throw our punch at that point.”
In this one, Seton Hall blitzed MU, 20-9, in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
“Well, Seton Hall is really good at making runs,” Smart said. “They did it to Xavier much worse (in an 86-68 win Jan. 28) than they did to us today.
“So it was something we talked about a lot going into the game. You got to match or exceed their energy, and then you’ve got to own what goes into getting team stops and team scores. We had some turnovers … you can’t turn the ball over 16 times as a team over the course of this game, especially during stretches like that where we stepped out of bounds once, we had the ball slapped away from us on drives a couple times. Fumbled the ball. They were able to turn those into opportunities for them, and that’s where you feel momentum as a home team.”
The game was back and forth after the Pirates’ early second-half run, and it was tied at 60-60 with four minutes left after MU’s Nigel James Jr. made a tough layup.
MU’s Royce Parham made a layup while being fouled with 1:46 remaining, but he missed the free throw and the game was tied again at 64-64. Seton Hall’s A.J. Staton-McCray then hit a 3-pointer at the 1:18 mark to give the Pirates the lead for good.
“The 3 they made, we actually trapped the screen because we wanted to be aggressive,” Smart said. “We’d had a tough time making them miss all half.
“They did a good job playing with poise. Passing out of it. And then Staton-McCray banged in a big shot, that was the difference-maker.”
Adam “Budd” Clark is too much to handle for the Golden Eagles
Seton Hall’s shifty point guard Adam “Budd” Clark gave MU’s defense fits. The guard got loose for midrange fadeaway shots despite his 5-foot-10 frame. He scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half.
“He was the best player in the game today,” Smart said. “Just with his poise and his command of the game.
“He never really got sped up. He made some huge pull-ups. He’s tough. He does that to a lot of people. We actually adjusted and put Damarius (Owens) on him for a couple minutes there. That at least put some length on him. We made him miss one of those pullups in that stretch. He’s a good player. He’s an experienced guard. And you can see that experience play out.”
Seton Hall just got the plays it needed down the stretch, while MU’s young players are still learning how to close games.
After Staton-McCray’s 3-pointer, Parham lost the ball in the paint and Clark came up with the steal. MU got a defensive stop with 14 seconds on the clock, but James missed a tough layup while trying to get a quick bucket. Seton Hall grabbed the rebound, and Clark’s two free throws sealed the win.
Nigel James Jr. and Royce Parham are top scorers
MU’s offense once again ran through Parham, a sophomore, and James, who has proven to be one of the top freshmen in the Big East.
But James had some first-year moments by dribbling into traffic, and he finished with six turnovers. Parham coughed the ball up three times, including two in the final eight minutes.
“He’s coming,” Smart said of Parham. “We got to continue to be more intentional when him and Ben are in together. In terms of exploiting the matchup, who is guarding Ben, who is guarding Royce.”
A good sign for MU was that Gold knocked down 3 of 7 3-pointers after coming into the game 24 of 97 from deep in Big East games.
“It’s obviously really good to see the ball go in from 3,” Gold said. “It’s been up and down this season, for me, from 3.
“In the past, I would have been really frustrated with it, and it would have messed me up because that’s a big part of my game. Now, I can get a lot of other stuff. Obviously, I want to see those 3s fall. But when they don’t, I’m still able to make plays other ways.”
In order to win a close game on the road, the Golden Eagles are going to have to avoid lapses that have plagued the team all season.
“I think we need to come together, watch some film and just recognize that it’s always something small,” Gold said. “Something really controllable.
“Whether it’s communication on a screen or someone gets beat and someone needs to step up. It’s not like it’s something skill-based or ridiculously hard to fix. We’re right there. It’s just one more effort, two more efforts and we can win that game.”
Marquette’s probable starters
Guards: Nigel James Jr., Chase Ross, Adrien Stevens
Forwards: Ben Gold, Royce Parham
Marquette at Seton Hall prediction
The Golden Eagles are looking for payback against the Pirates. MU looked like it was going to pull away in the teams’ first matchup at Fiserv Forum on Dec. 30, but then fell apart in the final four minutes. MU has learned from its scars and is playing much better than at that time. Much like MU, Seton Hall is a bad 3-point shooting team. That helps the Golden Eagles earn their first road win in this one.
Prediction: MU 71, Seton Hall 62
What channel is Marquette vs Seton Hall on today? TV, livestream
Marquette vs Seton Hall start time
Marquette vs Seton Hall odds
Odds courtesy of BetMGM as of Jan. 31
Marquette basketball schedule 2025-26
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette remains winless on the road after close loss at Seton Hall
Reporting by Ben Steele, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
