Marquette men’s basketball had been there before. In the driver’s seat. With a hand on the wheel of winning.
Monday against Providence was the second time in two games that the Golden Eagles lived large with a halftime lead after 20 opening minutes of dominance. They walked — nay, skipped — into the locker room after a big swing in the final 60 seconds, capped off by Damarius Owens’ last second 3-pointer, prompted Shaka Smart to run onto the court and pump his fist. Like the Marquette head coach hit the shot.
Owens’ make gave the Golden Eagles a 10-point halftime lead, 54-44, and was the cherry on top of a lights out first half in which the blue & gold made 20 of their 33 shots, or 60.6%.
It was a near identical reality to last Friday against DePaul, a game that ended in defeat after a sordid second half.
Fast-forward three days to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, go north from Wintrust Arena to Fiserv Forum and swap out the Blue Demons for the Friars. Then, account for one more difference. The most important one.
Add in Nigel James Jr. once again answering the Bat Signal and showing his beyond-his-years poise in the clutch, and what looked multiple times like it would be a back-to-back second half choke turned into a 105-104 victory — albeit in overtime. Even though it was Ben Gold who hit the actual game-winner — a free throw with four seconds remaining — James Jr. was clearly the one to put the Golden Eagles in a position to win.
His career best 38 points, the most scored by a Marquette first-year since Markus Howard, and eight assists were part of the story. But it was when the point guard put the ball into the hoop that really told the story of his Monday.
“I’ve been in situations like that growing up my whole life, where it’s close games,” he said. “Because I’m an extension of the coach on the court, I have to be the one that’s poised. Because my teammates might be hectic or we might not know what’s going on, so just being poised I’ve learned a whole lot.”
At the start of the second half, when Providence scored the first seven points and trailed by one possession after under a minute and a half, déjà vu seemed inevitable. While the Golden Eagles were able to recover, not letting their deficit again become insurmountable, it seemed impossible for them to win when the Friars led 92-88 with 31 seconds remaining.
After more seconds passed, the clock read 00:18 and the score 94-91. All Providence needed to do was maintain possession, but Owens made a heads-up play to knock the ball free and, with two seconds to go, James Jr. was fouled on a 3-pointer.
Having already missed a couple earlier, with the added pressure of the match result resting on his shoulders, he stepped and made the first two. Then, Kim English called timeout, but James Jr. would not be iced and he converted the third to force overtime.
“Guys work a lot on their free throws on their own, but honestly, it comes down to poise and guts,” Smart said. “But you can see the look on his face. He knew he was going to make it. He wanted the free throws. Not everybody’s made for that position. Not everybody’s made for that role to be the floor leader, the guy that’s attacking, the guy that’s got the ball in his hands. What matters most, NJ is made for that.”
In overtime, the James Train kept on chugging as he posted six points and two crucial assists. His final bucket was a layup that tied the game 104-104 with 18 seconds left. Then, after Corey Floyd Jr. turned the ball over — one of the Friars’ 17 giveaways — Gold was fouled and made the first of two to secure the win.
“Our guys, they never stopped believing,” Smart said. “Our guys hung in there. The timeouts were really good, what they were saying to each other. We had some unfortunate plays. We had a couple guys foul out. Some free throws that we missed. I didn’t think there was a lot of head dropping.
“There were a couple head-scratching plays. But they hung in there, these are imperfect games. They’re always going to be that, particularly when got a lot of young guys out there.”
But it helps when one of those young guys is James Jr.
This story was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at jack.albright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.