Defense and bench-scoring paved the way to victory.
The Marquette Golden Eagles were hardly challenged on Tuesday night and celebrated a blowout win over Jackson State.
The Golden Eagles’ 83-54 win over the Tigers of the SWAC improved them to 7-1 on the early season. The Golden Eagles have still yet to allow more than 72 points at any point this season, as the defense under Shaka Smart has been as advertised thus far.
MU held Jackson State to under 35 percent on 2-pointers, under 25 percent on 3-pointers, and the Tigers only mustered 53.3 percent from the free-throw line as well. On the night, Jackson State shot just 30.4 percent. It’s the lowest output allowed this season on file goals and the third time a team has shot less than 40 percent against the Golden Eagles this season.
Offensively, Marquette was boosted big time by their bench. 46 of their 83 points came from bench players with Oso Ighodaro leading the way. The freshman big man from Chandler, Arizona scored 14 points and shot 6-for-6 from the field. Ighodaro also added 11 rebounds to give him his first career double-double. Olivier-Maxence Prosper chipped in 11 points of his own to give Marquette two double-figure scorers. No starter had more than eight points, though four of the five starters — Darryl Morsell, Justin Lewis, Kam Jones, and Kur Kuath all dropped in eight. Tyler Kolek was the only starter who didn’t, as he scored five.
If there was one thing Marquette could and should improve upon, it’s turnovers. The Golden Eagles committed 20 of them on the night, the same as their opponent. MU’s TO% is at 19.6 percent on the season. They could stand to do significantly better than that and hopefully for their sake that number improves.
Marquette has a huge matchup with the in-state rival Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday in Madison. The Golden Eagles have held an edge over the Badgers in this rivalry of late. They’ve taken four of the last six and six of the last 10 meetings from their in-state foes and haven’t been shy at Kohl Center either. They’ve won four of the last seven meetings in Madison and hope to make it five of eight on Saturday.