The Marquette Golden Eagles has preserved their clean record as they dominated the visiting Western Carolina 94-62, big thanks to the impressive contribution by the bench who coach Shaka Smart singled out days before.
The reserves were put on the spotlight by Smart a few days ago when he said that they should keep on building the bench.
Kam Jones led the way as usual for the team with his 20 points while Ben Gold and Stevie Mitchell added 12 and 10, respectively.
The reserves were given the spotlight and made a good account of themselves as they tallied 37 points led by Royce Parham and Caedin Hamilton who got 9 points each. Zaide Lowery, who unfortunately suffered a knee injury, played 17 minutes and poured in 8 points for the team.
Jones was so impressed by their young players that he even had to give them a shoutout on X, calling them “the future.”
Also how about the youngins tonight?!?!??!!! #thefuture
— Kameron Jones (@csgkam) November 28, 2024
The win is a follow up to a dominant win over Stonehill who they beat 25 points, 94-59.
What did Shaka Smart say about the Marquette bench?
It was not just Jones who was left impressed. Even junior player Gold thinks the youngins’ are starting to understand their roles.
“I think our bench squad has really stepped up majorly the last couple games,” he said after the game.
“I think they’re really starting to come into it, coming to their own… The young guys, the freshmen, Caedin’s first year actually playing, they’re understanding what it takes to play at a high level, play at Marquette.”
Smart has really been very particular about his reserves. He thinks they have what it takes to take on a greater role and that them being reliable will be a great weapon for Marquette.
“In the defensive end, there’s still a lot of details that we get more reps for those guys, reps in practice, reps in games,” he said last Wednesday.
“But depth can be a real advantage for us if the young guys on our team understand that, hey, it’s not even about statistics or anything individual that I need to be doing beyond helping my team get team stops and team scores.”
Next for Marquette is is a road game against the Iowa State on December 5.
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