Villanova plays host to No. 17 Marquette

Published November 20, 2014

Hoping to exact some revenge for an ranked Marquette Golden Eagles when the two teams hook up for a Big East Conference clash at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia today.

Marquette is an impressive 17-4 on the season, and the team has won six of its first eight league bouts. The Golden Eagles are flying high on the wings of a five-game win streak, but despite their solid run and their stellar overall record, they are just 2-3 in true road games this season. MU's most recent triumph came in a 67-47 rout of visiting USF on Tuesday night.

Villanova comes into this bout a game under .500 on the season (10-11), and the team has had its difficulties in conference play as well with only three wins in nine opportunities. The Wildcats recently had a modest two-game win streak stopped in an 84-74 loss at Louisville on Wednesday, but coach Jay Wright's club has performed well at home and in neighboring Philadelphia, sporting an 8-2 home mark to this point.

Villanova leads the all-time series with Marquette, 11-8, but the Golden Eagles took an 81-77 decision when the two met in Milwaukee back on New Year's Day. Darius Johnson-Odom led MU with 24 points in that game, while Mouphtaou Yarou scored 14 points to pace the Wildcats.

Johnson-Odom scored 17 points, while Davante Gardner and Jae Crowder added 15 points apiece to help lead Marquette to a relatively easy win over USF earlier this week. The Golden Eagles shot just 39.7 percent from the field, but held the Bulls to 35.6 percent, which included a 4-of-14 effort from three-point range. MU committed just five turnovers in the game, while coaxing 22 miscues from USF on which the home team scored 20 points. With the effort, Johnson- Odom upped his team-leading scoring average to 18.1 ppg, and he is hitting nearly 40 percent of his three-point attempts (45-of-114). Crowder (16.2 ppg, 7.2 rpg) is the squad's only other double-digit scorer at the moment, although both Gardner and Todd Mayo are close to joining the ranks as they net 9.9 and 9.7 ppg, respectively. As a team, the Golden Eagles are putting up 76.3 ppg on the strength of their 46.1 percent overall shooting effort, which includes a 35.5 percent showing from beyond the arc. They are giving up 63.7 ppg, with foes hitting less than 40 percent of their total shots, and Marquette takes advantage of more than 17 turnovers per outing.

Despite their sub par record, the Wildcats own favorable margins in both scoring (+2.2) and rebounding (+6.3) for the season. The team boasts three double-digit scorers, led by star guard Maalik Wayns (18.7 ppg, 4.6 apg), who is shooting 43 percent from the floor, but really shines at the free-throw line where he is a Big East-best 89 percent accurate (112-of-125). Dominic Cheek (12.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg) and Yarou (11.5 ppg, 8.2 rpg) round out the offensive-minded trio for Villanova, which hasn't played very good defense this season in yielding 71.3 ppg and goading the opposition into only 11.3 turnovers per contest. Villanova stood toe to toe with Louisville earlier this week, but in the end just didn't make enough plays at either end of the court in order to pick up what would have a huge road win. Wayns scored 19 points, James Bell notched his first career double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Yarou chipped in with 10 points and seven boards for the 'Cats, who made good on only 39.4 percent of their total shots, missing 14 of their 19 three-point tries along the way. JayVaughn Pinkston grabbed 12 boards, helping VU outrebound the Cardinals, 43-41. Another positive for the Wildcats was the fact that they scored 40 points in the paint, compared to 22 for Louisville.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/villanova-plays-host-to-no-17-marquette