Stomp ‘Em: Marquette 84, Georgia Tech 60

Nov 24, 2022 - 1:53 AM

Marquette men’s basketball’s consolation game in the Rocket Mortgage Tip-Off against Georgia Tech falls into the “when exactly was this game over?” department.

In the interest of keeping myself entertained while writing a recap about a game that Marquette led by as many as 18 in the first half and as many as 29 in the second before winning 84-60, let’s try to figure out the answer to that question.

Was it:

• When Marquette was up 7-0 in the first three minutes and change and Georgia Tech had already committed two turnovers including a 10 second backcourt violation?
• When Sean Jones split a pair of freebies at the 13:21 mark to put the Golden Eagles up 15-2? [Editor’s note: this one feels very much like the answer since the point that Georgia Tech couldn’t do a damn thing about anything MU was doing on either end was very evident at this point]
• When Marquette responded to Georgia Tech pulling within seven points at 26-19 by going on a 15-4 run over the next six minutes to take an 18 point lead?
• When the Golden Eagles came out of the locker room after GT had scored the final five points of the first half to make the lead just 41-28 at the break and immediately knocked the lead back to 18, where it was with 90 seconds left in the first half?
• When Jones got to the rack with 14:20 to go in the second half to put MU up by 20 for the first time in the game?
• When David Joplin hit a three-pointer with 5:22 left in regulation to push Marquette’s lead back above 20 were it would stay for the remainder of the contest?
• When Stevie Mitchell dished off to Sean Jones then faded to the corner for a three-pointer off a boomerang pass from Jones to put Marquette up 80-51, their largest margin of the entire game?

You tell me, because any and/or all of these are possible. Marquette got a lead, built it up, and defended it fiercely.

Let’s talk about some stats, because that’s all we have left here.

Kam Jones led a four-pack of Golden Eagles in double digits in scoring on this night, getting 19 points on 6-for-12 shooting. That includes a 4-for-8 mark from long range to give him a personal effective field goal percentage of 67%, well above the team mark of 54.9%. Tyler Kolek added 14 points to go with five rebounds, six assists, and a steal as he affected the game all over the place, perhaps most importantly by getting into the lane and scoring on multiple occasions. Oso Ighodaro finished with a double-double on 10 points and 10 rebounds, and he added five blocks to just generally terrify the Yellow Jackets on both ends of the floor.

The biggest thing about this game? Marquette didn’t let Georgia Tech take good shots. The Yellow Jackets were a bad shooting team coming into this one as we talked about in the preview, and the Golden Eagles never let them get comfortable shooting it. GT hit just 33.8% of their field goals, and that 7-for-23 long range subset is why they finished with an eFG of 39.2% for the night.

Wanna watch some highlights, courtesy of Fox Sports and GoMarquette.com?

Up Next: Marquette will reconvene after Thanksgiving for a Saturday evening date with Chicago State. Tipoff at Fiserv Forum with the Cougars is scheduled for 7:30pm Central. CSU is 2-5 on the season after losing by 14 to Cleveland State on Wednesday afternoon.