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Villanova blasts Marquette at Wells Fargo, 70-52

02/04/2015, 10:00pm EST

By Tom Reifsnyder

Freshman guard Phil Booth provided a nice spark off the bench, scoring 10 points as Villanova downed Marquette on Wednesday night. (Photo: Tom Reifsnyder)

Tom Reifsnyder (@tom_reifsnyder)
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The Marquette Golden Eagles had been competitive against Top 25 teams this year, never losing by more than 11 points in four games with ranked opponents.

Well, not anymore.

In front of a spotty Wells Fargo crowd, Villanova effectively put an end to Marquette’s streak of close bouts with ranked teams as the No. 7 Wildcats ran through the Golden Eagles, 70-52, on Wednesday night.

Junior point guard Ryan Arcidiacono paced the Wildcats with 18 points, knocking down 4-of-7 attempts from 3-point range and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.

Now losers of six in a row, Marquette is enduring its longest losing streak since the Golden Eagles lost seven consecutive games in 1990-91.

“It’s a tough game to find any positives,” Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski said after the loss. “Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for us; this isn’t a league with a lot of pity.”

For the Wildcats, it’s their third win a row since being blown out by now-No. 24 Georgetown, who ‘Nova will rematch on Saturday at The Pavilion.

“You just worry about one game at a time, you really do,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. “Each game has got a life unto itself. So this Georgetown game coming up, they got us good, they just really outplayed us. I know our guys will be excited to see how far we’ve come since that game.”

Both Marquette (23.3 percent) and ‘Nova (32.4 percent) had a rough go of it from the field in the first half as each team’s shooting percentage hovered around 30 percent.

While layups were hard to come by, it was a different story from behind the arc for both squads as the Golden Eagles knocked down 4-of-8 3-point attempts, just one long ball behind the shot-happy Wildcats, who managed a 5-of-14 clip.

After a Matt Carlino three tied the game at 12-12 with nine minutes until halftime, ‘Nova turned on the jets and racked up a 12-0 run to gain full control of the game, ultimately taking a 36-19 lead into the locker room.

“I thought we really came out focused on Carlino early,” Wright said. “He didn’t get anything for a while and then he hit two quick threes and then one right at the end of the half.”

Carlino, a BYU transfer, was the only Golden Eagle with any offensive rhythm in the first half, accounting for three of Marquette’s four 3-pointers. ‘Nova senior Darrun Hilliard matched Carlino’s game-high nine points at the half, just ahead of teammate Arcidiacono who scored eight; Hilliard would finish with 12 points on the night.

Two minutes into the second half, Carlino took a hard fall after fouling Arcidiacono on his way to the rim. The fifth-year senior laid on the floor for a few minutes while being evaluated by the Marquette training staff, but eventually popped up to his feet and jogged back to the Golden Eagles’ bench with no apparent issues.

Carlino would finish the game, but didn’t have nearly the impact in the second half that he did in the first, scoring no points through the first eight minutes of the final period as ‘Nova (20-2, 7-2) established a 50-26 advantage, which was capped off by a breakaway slam from junior Dylan Ennis; Carlino finished with nine points, scoring zero in the second half.

The Wildcats shot just 37.7 percent from the field, but their defense ultimately prevailed, forcing 17 Marquette turnovers by game’s end.

“I think that’s what you learn in a game like this,” Wright said. “You can come out, you can be out of sync offensively and still have your defense carry you.”

Like Wright, Arcidiacano didn’t give much thought to the team’s early struggles on the offensive end.

“With this team, we’ve all been through it before so we’re not afraid of anything,” Arcidiacono said. “We’re not afraid of missing shots.

“We’re just going to come out and play harder than the other team and we know eventually we’ll start making shots if we keep defending.”

Daniel Ochefu played a largely defensive role for the Wildcats on the night as the junior big scored just three points and grabbed nine rebounds, finishing tied with Carlino for the game-high on the glass. Fellow starting big JayVaughn Pinkston added 10 points and seven boards.

Sophomore Josh Hart and freshman Phil Booth also scored in double figures for ‘Nova, finishing with 11 and 10 respectively.

In the absence of Carlino’s scoring production, sophomore guard JaJuan Johnson led the Golden Eagles with 10 points as fellow sophomore Luke Fischer dropped in nine points and four rebounds. Freshman guard Duane Wilson (12 ppg) rounded out Marquette’s leading scorers with eight points on 4-of-9 shooting.

Marquette (10-12, 2-8) will look to avoid matching its losing streak from that 1990-91 season as the Golden Eagles meet up with Seton Hall on Saturday.