‘Defense wins championships’ is a phrase basketball fans have been hearing lately in relation to NBA trades but for coach Shaka Smart and the Marquette Golden Eagles, that part of the game is what spelled their doom against the Creighton Bluejays.
His team fell to their third straight loss after bowing on the road to Creighton Bluejays.
The defeat is a follow up to their recent loss to the Big East’s no. 1 team St. John’s Red Storm and then the one against U-Conn Huskies during the National Marquette Day.
It was a low-scoring affair but Golden Eagles’ case is more of about their struggle in shooting, no thanks to the clamping defense by their opponents.
Kam Jones got his usual numbers, scoring 27 points on an efficient 11 out of 19 shooting. He also had four rebounds and six assists. David Joplin had 22 points for himself.
The duo remains terrific. However, the rest of the cast were ineffective, especially Stevie Mitchell who went four out of 14 for 10 points. Ben Gold’s struggle continues, too, getting limited to just two rebounds with no assists.
Shaka Smart giving proper credit to opponents
One can say that the Golden Eagles players being unproductive are more about their personal battles but for Smart, Bluejays’ defense played a great role.
Creighton had six blocks against the Golden Eagles’ one, and 15 steals against the latter’s 10.
They also managed to shoot above 50 percent overall while the Golden Eagles went 36.1 percent.
Smart praised Jamiya Neal, Steven Ashworth and Ryan Kalkbrenner for their performance saying they are huge reasons behind their team’s run.
“Those three guys have been playing their tails off during this stretch that Creighton’s had since the last time time we played them,” Smart said. “They’ve won every game. That’s a big reason why they’ve won so many games.”
As for his team, Smart is not panicking and believes they can things around soon, which is expected since they will now embark on an easier schedule.
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