Marquette Quotes | Providence Quotes | Box Score

By SEAN BRENNAN
BIGEAST.com
 
It was easy to get lost in all the craziness surrounding the BIG EAST Tournament this year.
 
Questions swirled around what seemed to be every program in the conference. Did St. John’s and Seton Hall do enough to sway the Selection Committee for a  Big Dance invite? Would Villanova have one more run in it with Eric Dixon and Justin Moore? Did you see who DePaul hired as its new coach? Would the runaway train known as UConn slow down even a little as they pursue their first title in over a decade?
 
So who got lost in all the craziness? Remember Marquette?
 
It’s the program that won the regular-season title last season. Then the Golden Eagles headed back to Milwaukee wearing the BIG EAST Tournament crown last March after proving to all the naysayers that picking them ninth in the preseason coaches poll was a very poor prediction.
 
But there was Marquette again this year, battling UConn for the regular-season title all season long. Going into late February the Golden Eagles were nipping at the heels of the Huskies only to falter down the stretch when the Golden Eagles lost the Golden Child, a.k.a. Tyler Kolek, to an oblique injury. It was a setback that cost Kolek the final  three games of the regular season and the BIG EAST Tournament.
 
But whenever there was talk of Marquette, it usually revolved around Kolek’s availability, not so much about the Golden Eagles’ quest for another tournament title.
 
But Marquette took its first step toward a repeat with a victory over Villanova in the quarterfinals Thursday night and with a win over Providence in the semifinals, look who would be back in the finals for the second year in a row? But getting by a desperate Friars team that needs to stack some tournament wins in the hopes of securing an NCAA Tournament bid would seem a tough task without Kolek, who Marquette coach Shaka Smart called arguably the conference’s best player.
 
Turns out Marquette was just fine without Kolek. Even with the Golden Eagles’ Big Three of Kolek, Kam Jones and Oso Ighodaro again reduced to a Big Two, they proved to be just enough for Marquette to move on to the finals after they duo combined for 43 points in the Golden Eagles’ 79-68 victory over the Friars in front of a sellout crowd of 19,812 at the Garden.
 
Third-seeded Marquette (25-8) will now face top-seeded UConn for the championship. The Huskies defeated Marquette in both of their regular-season matchups this season. It’s also the first time in 31 years that the defending champions will face the No. 1 seed in the title game. Back in 1993, No. 1 seed Seton Hall defeated  defending champion Syracuse.
 
“It was a heck of an effort by Providence. I thought they played with tremendous desperation and playing a third game in three days, they found a level of energy that allowed them to almost overtake us there,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said. 
 
Marquette seemingly had things well in hand when a three-pointer by Ben Gold with 13:28 to play opened up a 15-point lead for the Golden Eagles at 54-39 and it looked as though they were prepared to coast the rest of the way. But there was still plenty of fight left in the Fightin’ Friars as they slowly began to cut into the Marquette advantage. And led by Devin Carter, the newly-minted conference Player of the Year, the Friars made their move. And it didn’t take long before they were within striking distance of the Golden Eagles and momentum was most definitely beginning to shift. Over the next 10 minutes Providence mounted a 27-14 run spearheaded by Carter, who was showing once again why he was chosen as the conference’s top player. And by the time Carter sank a free throw with 3:39 to play, the Friars were within 68-66 and the Garden was a-rockin.
 
But relying on their championship pedigree, Marquette righted the ship and used a 9-2 run to close out the game with Jones (23 points) adding five points in the game-deciding spurt. Ighodaro finished with 20 points while the Golden Eagles also got valuable contributions from David Joplin (12 points) and Stevie Mitchell (10 points and 8 rebounds).
 
“The lead got down to two but Stevie (Mitchell) and his teammates just continued to battle,” Smart said.
 
MItchell said there was no time to panic once their 15-point lead got whittled down to two or three points. Why?
 
“Would you rather be up three or down three?” Mitchell asked. “We were still in a good position to win the game. And I think that’s the mindset we all have. It’s all about winning. None of us care about it being pretty. We just want to win the game.”
 
Now it’s on to face UConn for a shot at a repeat. 
 
“Obviously UConn has some good players, has a good team,” Mitchell said. “So we’re going to obviously watch film, learn from previous games against them, learn from this game and then continue to move forward. But I think being the best version of ourselves is what we’re really focusing on the most.”
 
Carter was otherworldly again for Providence as he finished with a game-high 27 points while Jayden Pierre chipped in with 16. Now the Friars will wait and see what Sunday’s Selection Show has in store for them.
 
“I hate that our fate is out of our hands but we got a little less than 48 hours to wait and see where our next destination is,” Providence coach Kim English said. “I’m excited to see where we wind up. I’m very optimistic.”