No. 9 Marquette basketball did its best to rattle the No. 25 UConn Huskies on Saturday night at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, but the two-time defending champions still escaped with a 77-69 win over Shaka Smart’s team. The Huskies’ victory over Marquette was also a testament to how well Hurley has instilled the readiness to take on teams such as Marquette, which always has that extra motivation to beat a team like the reigning champs.
“We have to have an understanding that beating Marquette is a quality win, and there’s a level of desperation that the other team has when they play us,” Hurley said after the game, per Daily Dose of Hoops.
“That’s whether it’s UConn, Butler, Villanova…it doesn’t matter who it is. We talk about that a lot, but acceptance only works 100 percent. If you 75 percent accept that, that ain’t gonna work.”
Marquette basketball’s comeback attempt falls short
The win over Marquette basketball did not come easy for the Huskies. The Golden Eagles put tremendous defensive pressure on the Huskies, as Marquette tried to pull off a come-from-behind win. Marquette, which was down 13 points at the half, used a frenetic defense to force plenty of UConn turnovers.
The Huskies turned the ball over 25 times and were outshot, 63-42. Unfortunately for Marquette, the Huskies made most of their shots when they were not coughing up the ball. The Huskies shot 59.5 percent from the field and went 12-for-19 from behind the arc. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles made only 39.7 of their field goal attempts and were just 7-for-22 from deep.
Marquette’s loss dropped the Golden Eagles to 18-4 overall and 9-2 in the Big East while UConn improved to 16-6 overall and 8-3 in conference play.
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