CHICAGO — All Chase Ross could do was sit on the ground and watch as Oklahoma men’s basketball stormed the floor.
Just minutes before, the senior guard had ignited immense excitement among the Marquette bench, bringing the blue & gold back from a seven-point deficit with a game-tying 3-pointer 72 with 58.9 seconds to play. But nearly 59 seconds of game-time later, the feeling shifted to sheer disappointment.
There was a common theme for the Golden Eagles (4-4) on Friday afternoon in their 75-74 loss to Oklahoma (5-2); one step forward was immediately followed by two steps backwards.
“We have to understand that the only way to win is to stay with it, even when everything’s not going your way,” Golden Eagles head coach Shaka Smart said. “Because over the course of a 40-minute game, if you’re playing a good team, they’re going to make a run.”
And there was no worse back track than the one that started at the 13:34 mark of the second half and ended with 6:49 remaining. In those nearly seven minutes, the Golden Eagles did not make a single basket — going 0-for-9 from the floor and scoring all five of their points from the free-throw line — and allowed 21 points.
It was this 21-5 run, one that turned a 12-point lead into a four-point deficit, that really illustrated Marquette’s biggest flaw this season: being unable to put together a full 40 minutes of good basketball.
“Offensively, a combination of missing shots around the basket,” Smart said about what went wrong during the run. “Not necessarily making the right read when we did get in the paint, and then we missed some open threes.
“At that time, when a team’s on a run like that, you have to find a way to get in the paint and get fouled. It’s considerably less fouls called in this game than maybe some of our games earlier this year. You got to adjust and you got to keep attacking.”
The Sooners run got started after redshirt senior guard Nijel Pack lost first-year guard Adrien Stevens and nailed a wide open corner 3-ball. Stevens missed a triple on the following end, leading to senior forward Tae Davis beating everyone down the floor and getting fouled for an and-one layup.
“I feel like there’s some instances where some players miss some shots and are down about it,” sophomore forward Royce Parham said. “But it’s just about teammates coming together and letting them know they can make a shot because they worked on that shot thousands of times. Every single day they hit that shot.”
Davis’ and-one was one of his 15 second half points to mark 19 on the day.
“My teammates really helped me out,” he said. “Nijel (Pack) hit a lot of big shots in the first half, and I hit a lot down the stretch of the second.”
Pack, who finished with a game-high 24 points, hit a tough turnaround jump shot in junior guard Zaide Lowery’s grill to trim Oklahoma’s deficit to 52-50 with 10:19 to play.
Two possessions later, it was Davis who waltzed into the paint untouched for the offensive rebound and put-back to tie the game at 54. Whether it was putting the ball in the basket or flying in to contribute any of his game-high 11 rebounds, Davis had his fingerprints all over the Oklahoma comeback.
Redshirt senior guard Jeff Nwankwo sent home a triple on a winding shot clock to make it 57-54. The Sooners wouldn’t trail the rest of the way.
James Jr. drove in for a layup at the 6:49 mark to stop the offensive bleeding and cut the Oklahoma lead to 59-57, but damage had already been done. The backward steps had already been taken.
“There were a couple possessions today, where whether it was a missed shot or something else that didn’t go our way, if that pulls you out of the moment for a second, it can impact you on something like transition defense or defensive rebounding,” Smart said. “It’s a tough pill for us to swallow.
“But, as a young team, we have to learn that lesson.”
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.