No. 18 Marquette’s second win of the season was a much closer affair than the 82-63 final score would suggest.
The Golden Eagles were pleased with how they put Friday’s game to bed and will try to bring a similar composure into Monday’s contest against visiting Central Michigan in Milwaukee.
In a game played at Marquette’s campus arena that only students were allowed to attend, the Golden Eagles trailed pesky George Mason multiple times in the second half. They slipped behind 51-50 with 13:36 to go after allowing a 3-pointer to Darius Maddox.
Marquette (2-0) scored the next five points to flip the lead, then pulled away with a dominant 21-2 run in the closing minutes.
Head coach Shaka Smart praised the poise shown by his younger players in particular.
“That’s part of doing things the way we do things, is putting up a level of investment,” Smart said in his postgame press conference. “Intentionality with their growth in every second of every day. And knowing that on Nov. 8 you are not going to be anywhere near where you want to be at the end of the year. These are valuable, valuable experiences, these games. You just can’t replicate them.”
The freshmen and sophomores are coming along, but Marquette continues to be steered by a group of veteran leaders. David Joplin put up a game-high 27 points, 10 rebounds and three steals.
Kam Jones, who dropped 32 points in a season-opening win over Stony Brook, was the driving force behind the offense again. He scored 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting and dished eight assists to go with five rebounds and three steals.
“I’m just out there with a mentality of making the right play, whatever that means,” Jones said, per the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “If that means me scoring, fine. If that means me passing. If that means I’m in the corner with the correct spacing. Whatever it is, that’s what I’m trying to do every possession on both ends.”
Chase Ross also made key contributions, including scoring seven of his 11 points in the second half. He added five rebounds, four assists and a career-high five steals. Marquette has 23 steals through two games and has scored 46 points off opponents’ turnovers.
Central Michigan (1-1) hosted Stony Brook on Thursday and squandered a 12-point lead en route to a 73-72 loss.
Bryan Ndjonga missed two free throws after being intentionally fouled, and the Chippewas yielded a game-winning layup to Collin O’Connor with three seconds left.
Jakobi Heady leads Central Michigan with a 14.5 scoring average through two games. Damarion Bonds, a junior college transfer, made his team debut against Stony Brook and scored 10 points in 10 minutes off the bench, including back-to-back 3-pointers during the first half.
“He has the chance to be an electric scorer, and we got a small glimpse of what he has the ability to do,” coach Tony Barbee told the Central Michigan student newspaper. “That’s why we recruited Damarion, because he’s an electric scorer.”
–Field Level Media
