Jones Looks To Upset The Huskies
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Shara Talia Taylor
Marquette University’s Golden Eagles returned to the Big East Men’s Basketball championship game after a 79-68 victory over the Providence Friars in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden.
“It feels great,” said Golden Eagles Forward Oso Ighodaro. “We came here to win the tournament and we’re in position to do that.”
Marquette Guard Kam Jones scored 23 points and Ighodaro added 20 in the win. The Golden Eagles soared through the first half of their matchup with the Friars, but had to withstand Devin Carter, the 2024 Big East Player of the Year, as he dropped 27 points and led Providence in a second half comeback attempt.
“It was a heck of an effort by Providence,” said Marquette Coach Shaka Smart. “I thought they played with tremendous desperation, and playing a third game in three days, they found a level of energy that allowed them to almost over take us there.”
Coach Smart championed the team’s accomplishment without one of their leading scorers, point guard Tyler Kolek who sat out with an injury.
“We know there’s a lot of things we’re going to need to do better if we want to be able to win tomorrow night, but this group, we played five games now without Tyler, and really proud of the way that our guys have found ways to compete and found ways to win games,” he said.
Marquette was on the scoreboard first with two points from Ighodaro. A 3-pointer by Providence Guard Jayden Pierre gave the Friars a momentary lead, but a layup from Marquette forward David Joplin pushed the Golden Eagles back in front. Marquette was ahead the remainder of the first half of the game and gained as much as a 17-point lead with 4:11 minutes left. Marquette led 42-31 at halftime.
Providence fought their way back in the second half with 20 points from Carter alone.
“I knew after the first half, I didn’t really do too much to help my team try to get a victory,” Carter said. “So I just looked at myself in the mirror second half and we had a talk in the locker room and I just decided to be more aggressive and it worked out.”
He said they talked about getting defensive rebounds.
“We gave them a lot of second chance opportunities first half,” he said.
Carter had eight total rebounds, six were in the second half.
The Friars worked to cut the lead to two points. A free throw by Carter brought the score to 68-66 with 3:39 remaining in the half, but the Golden Eagles clawed their way to the finish line with defense and shots.
Carter led the Friars with three assists and two steals in addition to points.
“He’s exactly what we want our guys to do, give it everything you have,” said Friars Coach Kim English. “He does that every moment he’s on the court and the scary thing with Devin is he’s only scratching the surface of how good he can be.”
The Friars upset Creighton to reach the semifinals.
Marquette advanced to take on the University of Connecticut in the finals.
“UConn has some good players, has a good team,” Coach Smart said. “So we’re going to obviously watch film, learn from previous games against them, learn from this game, and then continue to move forward.”
The 2023 tournament winners left with hopes to reclaim their title in the championship match.
