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Marquette basketball has horrible shooting night in Sweet 16 loss to NC State, social media reacts
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- Marquette basketball has horrible shooting night in Sweet 16 loss to NC State, social media reacts
The Marquette men's basketball team wanted to get to the Elite 8 for the first time in 11 years.
Its shooting, however, was far from elite in the Sweet 16 — dreadful would be the best adjective — giving the Golden Eagles no shot at beating NC State in the 2024 NCAA Tournament .
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From inside, from outside and from the free-throw line, the Golden Eagles kept firing and kept missing. The result was an unsightly 67-58 loss to the No. 11-seeded Wolfpack, ending their season in painful fashion.
This March Madness game was maddening from start to finish for Marquette and not what Golden Eagles fans were used to from a team that was ranked among the top 10 most of the year.
The Golden Eagles advanced one round further than last year when they were also a No. 2 seed but it's the second straight season they fell to a lower seed in the tournament. It's no doubt another unsatisfying end for Shaka Smart's team that had bigger goals.
The 58 points were Marquette's fourth-lowest scoring output of the season and 20 fewer than its season average. The only games the Golden Eagles scored fewer than Friday night came in two contests to UConn , the reigning NCAA champion that will play in the Elite 8 on Saturday , and in a loss to Providence on the road in December.
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Here's how bad it was on Friday night:
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Marquette made only 2 of 13 three-point attempts (15.4%) in the first half and it shot 34.5% overall in trailing 37-24.
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The Golden Eagles finished the game 4 of 31 (12.9%) from three-point range and 20 of 60 overall (33.3%).
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Marquette was just 14 of 23 (60.9%) from the free-throw line. In the three NCAA Tournament games, the Golden Eagles shot 54.8% from the line. That was well under their 70.3% season average.
It was a tough watch and college basketball fans took to social media to discuss the ugliness.
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Tyler Kolek was the only Marquette player generating any type of offense for much of the game
Sweet 16: Men's March Madness score updates, highlights from Friday's games
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Twitter reacts to Marquette's horrible shooting game vs NC State
