As Valparaiso guard Brody Whitaker walked back to his bench, sweaty and dejected after being the second Beacon to foul out, the Marquette faithful rang out their homemade rendition of “Hey, hey, hey… Goodbye.”
Marquette first-year guard Nigel James Jr. then drained both free throws to ice the game and put the Golden Eagles up 75-72, their biggest lead since the first minute of the affair. His makes meant Marquette would barely escape with a win, albeit in overtime, improving to 5-4 and avoiding its first buy-game loss of the Shaka Smart era.
After the game, Smart was blunt about the importance of making free-throws in the victory.
“The foul line won us the game,” he said.
As a team, the Golden Eagles shot 32 free throws and made 27 of them, compared to the Beacons’ 8 makes from the line on 12 attempts. In the final period of play, Marquette went 8-for-8 from the stripe, with James Jr. accounting for half of them.
After Ross gave the Golden Eagls a 69-67 lead, the Beacons re-took the advantage on the next possession with a corner three from Owen Dease. Then, Ross and James Jr. began driving down the lane and drawing fouls, making 6-of-6 free throws with James Jr. converting the final four.
“We were in double bonus, so why not try to be aggressive and be poised at the same time,” James Jr. said.
It was, as Smart pointed out, a winning strategy for Marquette. Much of the night, free throws were perhaps the best offense Marquette produced. They were so effective that, on the potential game-winning possession at the end of regulation, rather than draw up a play, the Golden Eagles put the ball in Ross’ hands and had him drive to the hoop in hopes the referees would call a foul.
“Chase being aggressive, we want,” senior forward Ben Gold said. “We want him going downhill, attacking, trying to draw a foul because that’s what he’s really good at.”
The Golden Eagles struggled again shooting the ball, going an alarming 1-of-13 from deep in a first half Smart called “one of the worst offensive halves” in his time in Milwaukee. While they improved in the second half, so did the Beacons, so converting from the line was paramount.
Making 15-of-18 free throws in the second half, Marquette was able to force overtime after trailing since its 19-17 lead in the first half. Then, in overtime, they iced the game.
Over the final five minutes, the Golden Eagles went 1-for-6 overall and 0-for-1 from deep, scoring eight of their 10 points from the line.
“We went 1-for-6 on field goals, but that wasn’t even the main point [on offense],” James Jr. said. “It was mainly us being poised, making sure we get to the line and just knock them down.”
Although the Marquette defense forced 21 turnovers and 9 steals, its lack of cohesion on offense made waste of the extra possessions. The blue and gold scored 20 points from turnovers and 33 points from fast-breaks compared to the Beacons’ seven and three, respectively. Forty-five of Marquette’s 65 points were from turnovers and free throws, not from their half-court offense.
This theme has rung true to many Marquette games this season, where the overall defensive chaos contributes to a lot of points, but the offense is completely sluggish.
Its offense ranks dead last in the country (365 out of 365) at making contested spot-up jumpers, per Synergy Sports, and, as of Dec. 1, it is a measly 15.6% on catch and shoot 3-pointers. The Golden Eagles also have issues scoring in the paint, going 10-for-25 on layups against the Beacons.
“This is a team that has to get to the foul line like we did in the second half of the game,” Smart said. “That allows us to win.”
And the going only gets tougher for Marquette, which travels to Wisconsin on Dec. 6 and No. 1 Purdue on Dec. 13, followed by Big East play.
This story was written by Conor McPherson. He can be reached at conor.mcpherson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @ConorMcPherson_.