The No. 10 Marquette basketball found success anew on Saturday against the Villanova Wildcats, as the Golden Eagles moved further away from a recent upset loss to Sean Miller’s Xavier Musketeers on Jan. 18.
In their 87-74 win over the Wildcats, the Golden Eagles throttled Kyle Neptune’s squad with a pesky defense that resulted in 13 Villanova turnovers. Those miscues were translated into 16 points by Marquette, which got its flowers from Neptune following the game.
“A lot of credit to Marquette, they had a great gameplan and executed it,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “They played extremely hard, forced us into turnovers, got into transition and I thought they did everything they wanted to do.”
Marquette basketball’s defense does it again
Marquette basketball’s success in the 2024-25 season is largely in part of the Golden Eagles’ lockdown defense. It’s not only Villanova that got victimized by the Golden Eagles’ defense that ranks 13th in the nation in terms of adjusted defensive efficiency and seventh in defensive turnover rate, per KenPom. Marquette shot just 42.4 percent from the field and posted a mediocre 50.8 effective field goal percentage.
As for their offense, the Golden Eagles hit 46.7 percent of their attempts from the floor. They made a living as well on the foul line, where Marquette basketball went 22-for-27. Stevie Mitchell led Marquette with 21 points while Chase Ross and Kam Jones added 18 and 16 points, respectively.
The Golden Eagles are now 17-3 and will bring an 8-1 Big East record to their Tuesday meeting on the road with the Butler Bulldogs.
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