Marquette Defeats Providence 78-56 in Late Season Showdown
- Natalie Zona
- 13 minutes ago
- 3 min read
On a night where Providence was plagued by turnovers, Marquette took advantage and pulled away at the beginning of the second half.
Providence started the night by celebrating their 6 seniors: Jason Edwards, Jaylin Sellers, Jack Williams, Duncan Powell, Cole Hargrove, and Corey Floyd Jr. Edwards and Sellers were in the starting lineup, while the others saw playing time at other points in the game. Sellers was also coming off his second Big East Player of the Week recognition after averaging 27 points, while the Friars went 2-0.
Duncan Powell was also returning to the team after a three-game suspension he was given for a fight that broke out in the St. John’s game. Seemingly a fan favorite, he received loud cheers when he subbed into the game for the first time.
Once the game started, the Golden Eagles struck first after an opening, scoreless two minutes. Adrien Stevens broke the drought and got his scoring going early with a three-pointer. Stevens led the way with points for Marquette with 21 points at the end of the night.
Marquette broke out to an 8-0 start, but Jaylin Sellers hit his first bucket of the night and Providence’s first. The Golden Eagles were able to break into the paint a lot and took an early 12-5 lead at the first media timeout.
After the game, Providence Head Coach Kim English mentioned, “This was our worst offensive output tonight. Against Marquette you need movement, you’re not going to get isolations against them.”
Marquette played tough, hard defense on the perimeter, stopping the Friars from being able to pass inside to anyone. On the offensive side, freshman Nigel James Jr. picked up back-to-back buckets and ended the first half with ten points.
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Sellers was able to keep Providence in the game with back-to-back scores of his own, but Marquette pulled away slightly at the end of the first half when Royce Parham put points on the board. The score at the half was 37-23 with the Golden Eagles on top.
Providence was struggling with their shooting, they were 27% from the field through one half. Marquette led in field goal percentage, three-point percentage, paint points, turnovers caused, fast break points, and assists. The Golden Eagles were putting up dominant numbers in the first twenty minutes.
Marquette started the second half off with a 16-5 run through the first six minutes. After this point, they never relinquished their lead and finished dominantly. Ryan Mela kept Providence in the game for a little bit with 14 second half points. No one on Providence scored over 20 points.
Head Coach Kim English said, “That was rough, that was tough. It didn’t go the way we wanted it to. I give Marquette a ton of credit.”
For the Golden Eagles, James Jr. scored 20 points on 7-16 shooting and 7 rebounds. Adrien Stevens also notched on 21 points and 4 steals.
In their first matchup of the season, Marquette squeaked out the win with a final score of 105-104 in overtime. Marquette has now swept the regular season series, and it is very likely that these two teams will see each other in the Big East Tournament next week at Madison Square Garden.
Providence drops to 14-16 on the season with a 7-12 Big East record, while Marquette improves to 11-19 and 6-13 in the conference. Both teams will finish off their regular season in the next few days with the Big East Tournament beginning on March 11th.
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