In the final 45 seconds of the first half at Fiserv Forum on Monday evening, Marquette got a three-pointer from Adrien Stevens, a steal by Nigel James, and a three-pointer from Damarius Owens to go into the locker room with a 54-44 lead on Providence.
The good news: Biggest lead of the game so far!
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The bad news: That means that Marquette was only up four when Stevens let his shot fly after the Golden Eagles took a nine point lead on four different occasions in the first 20 minutes, all in the last 12 minutes of the frame. That’s important to note here, because Marquette prompted Providence into nine first half turnovers — including six steals by Chase Ross by himself — before James came up with that steal to make the stop on PC’s final possession of the half.
In short: Essentially, the only time Marquette got a stop in the first half is when they took it away from Providence. See also: The Friars shot 50% from the field and 42% behind the arc in the first half.
So, when Providence scored the first seven points of the second half to slash the margin to three: Not surprised, and every Marquette fan that watched DePaul’s 23-3 run in the middle of the game on Friday started having flashback attacks.
You’re not surprised to find out that Marquette had just three stops — not in a row, at all — when Ryan Mela got a layup to fall to tie the game at 68 with 12:16 to play. Given Marquette’s offensive struggles all season, you’re not surprised to find out that MU didn’t score a single point while putting up kill on PC while holding a one point lead.
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Providence tied it again at 75, 8:41 to go. Jaylin Sellers got a layup to go to wrap up a 7-0 PC run and take a 77-75 lead with 7:25 left. We have seen this movie before.
Stefan Vaaks hit a three for a five point Providence lead, 4:33 left. Just waiting for the other shoe…………. 7-0 Marquette run, Golden Eagles by two. Okay…. 6-0 Friars, PC up four, 1:37 left. We go under a minute after free throws from Nigel James, and if MU can get a stop, they will have lots of time to win whilst down two.
Chase Ross fouls Sellers in a particularly not helpful way, he makes both. Down four, MU drags their ass up the floor, letting clock burn, and somehow a James three falls on a second chance after he missed a three. One point game, 21 seconds left. Inbound, trap, foul Sellers, he makes them both.
And here’s where the title of the recap kicks in.
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Down 4 with less than 20 seconds left, Nigel James charges in and shoots a pull up 10 footer with 12 seconds left. This should, under nearly all circumstances, end the game. MU didn’t even take the shot they needed to tie the game, and didn’t even get a layup, which you could at least understand taking an easy bucket. Rebound PC, they throw it into the front court, and SOMEHOW, Vaaks loses it. SOMEHOW, Damarius Owens throws it, half no-look, mostly off-balance, to Royce Parham. He gets to James on the right wing, and Sellers — of course it’s Sellers, history rhymes — grabs James’ hand after he lets the shot go. Miss, but foul, and after Kim English tries to ice him between free throw #2 and #3, the game is tied at 94. PC’s prayer fails, and we go to overtime. Inexplicably, honestly, because Providence has just hung a 50-40 half on the Golden Eagles.
Honestly, I think I blacked out for most of overtime.
I’m looking at the PBP and my comments in the Game Thread, and I have no idea about any of this.
I remember Chase Ross picking up his last three fouls of the game in relatively short order with the last two coming on either side of yet another cartoonishly short floater in the lane from the Texan. I think I was aware that after Vaaks scored to start OT, neither team was up two again until the final minute. I remember Nigel James doing a directional pivot while keeping his dribble and going right past Vaaks for a casual layup to tie the game at 104.
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I remember Marquette forcing the ball out of Corey Floyd’s hands and Ben Gold reaching out for the ball. I will go to my grave not being 100% sure that it actually made sense to whistle Floyd for a foul as Gold went to the ground to get the ball. But that is what they called with four seconds left. Gold walked to the other end, made the first of his two free throws, PC inbounded after a timeout, Vaaks got a prayer into the air, nothing doing, and SOMEHOW, and I am really not 100% sure how, Marquette wins.
Blew a 10 point lead at the half, still won. Trailed by 3 and didn’t have the ball with five seconds left in regulation, still won. Didn’t have possession with 11 seconds left while tied, still won.
How? Because Nigel James put up a new career high with 38 points, mostly because he went 4-for-6 from long range. He also added eight assists to the night. Royce Parham had 18, Ben Gold got to 14 on that freebie to win it, Chase Ross had 16 before fouling out and had six assists and seven steals, and Damarius Owens was 4-for-7 from the field to chip in the only 12 bench points of the game for the Golden Eagles.
Oh, and we can’t discount it: Maybe the Players Edition uniforms are lucky.
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Highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Fox Sports:
Up Next: Marquette takes a crack at back-to-back wins for the first time since the first two games of the season on Friday night when they hit the road to visit Butler. Tipoff at Hinkle Fieldhouse is set for 7pm Central, and FS1 will have the broadcast. The Bulldogs beat Seton Hall 77-66 at The Rock on Saturday to snap a four game losing streak, and they’ll host DePaul on Tuesday night before MU comes to town.
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