Marquette men’s basketball fans have spent a lot of this season fantasizing about future years. When the Golden Eagles’ promising young core matures, and will be better suited to vault the blue & gold back to the top of the Big East.
Wednesday night assuredly did nothing to dampen those feelings, as Marquette’s first-year backcourt duo sparked the Golden Eagles (11-19, 6-13 Big East) to their second-straight road victory, a 78-56 shellacking of Providence.
Adrien Stevens led the Golden Eagles with a career-high 21 points, shooting 8-for-12 overall and 5-for-8 from beyond the arc. Nigel James Jr. finished right on his tail with 20 points, also grabbing a team-high seven rebounds and dishing two assists. They were the only two in the blue & gold to score double-digits.
“[Stevens] and NJ, there’s such a good 1-2 punch in that backcourt,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said in his postgame radio interview. “Their confidence that they’ve gained, both of them together, has a lot to do with one another. And I was really glad to see both of those guys engaged and making each other better tonight.”
It took less than three minutes to see glimpses of how the game would unfold.
Stevens hit his first 3-pointer of the night at the 18:17 mark — thanks to an assist from James Jr. — before getting another on the ensuing possession. His shooting helped the Golden Eagles take an 8-0 lead.
Ten minutes later, James Jr. got in on the 3-point fun and gave Marquette its first double-digit advantage of the night, 21-10. The two guards began a scoring tit-for-tat sequence, accounting for the Golden Eagles’ next seven points.
While a scoring drought would allow Providence to cut Marquette’s advantage to 30-19, the blue & gold began making shots again and walked into the locker room ahead 37-23. James Jr. and Stevens combined for 20 of Marquette’s total points, each scoring 10.
The Friars were perhaps lucky to be trailing only 14 points at halftime, as the Golden Eagles’ defense forced 13 turnovers — which they turned into 20 points — and the held their opponents to 6-of-23 from the floor.
“The last game (against Providence), 105-104 in overtime at our place. We knew that we were going to have to defend a lot better tonight,” Smart said. “And our guys, from the opening tip, they showed a terrific commitment to all the things that go into getting stops. We got our hands on the basketball, which was really disruptive in the first half.”
With Providence closer than Marquette would have liked, it was, of course, the two first-years that put the game out of reach. Because who else would it be?
Stevens began the second half in identical fashion to the first, drilling a 3-pointer less than two minutes into the period. Then, a trey from James Jr. put the Golden Eagles ahead by 2o for the first time all game.
After that, Marquette was comfortably on its way to victory, the only lingering question being how big could the blue & gold’s lead get. The answer to that would come at the 10:38 mark after a transition layup from Chase Ross put his team ahead by 27.
Along with Stevens and James Jr., the Golden Eagles’ defense played an important role in why they get milkshakes, holding the Friars to 17-of-55 overall and 7-of-30 3-point shooting. Marquette forced Providence to commit 19 turnovers, which it turned into 29 points.
“Providence has a lot of guys that can shoot, but we did a nice job counteracting that with contesting with the proper hand, making them miss,” Smart said. “To force them to 31% from the field is a big, big accomplishment for us.”
Marquette returns home for the final time to face No. 4 UConn on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. CST, when it will honor seniors Ross and Ben Gold before the game.
This story was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at jack.albright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.