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Marquette runs into wall in Big East tournament final. Now Golden Eagles need to get healthy.
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- Marquette runs into wall in Big East tournament final. Now Golden Eagles need to get healthy.
NEW YORK – It was always going to be a tall task for the Marquette men's basketball team in the Big East tournament championship game on Saturday night.
The Golden Eagles were playing their third game in three days, all without their most important player in floor general Tyler Kolek . The first two games were grueling, physical affairs that left many MU players limping and bandaged. Oh, and the Golden Eagles were playing one of the best teams in the nation in second-ranked Connecticut , which boasts a matchup nightmare in 7-foot-3 behemoth Donovan Clingan .
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So it wasn't surprising that the third-seeded Golden Eagles, ranked No. 10 in the country, ran out of gas in a 73-57 loss to the top-seeded Huskies at Madison Square Garden.
"I thought our guys had phenomenal fight," MU head coach Shaka Smart said. "Went toe-to-toe with a team that's probably played better than anyone in college basketball."
Box score: Connecticut 73, Marquette 57
Donovan Clingan too much to handle
MU held Connecticut scoreless for the first six minutes and 33 seconds. But MU only had a 2-0 advantage by the time the Huskies scored a field goal.
The Huskies finally clicked into gear, and they shot 17 for 27 (63%) in the second half to pull away.
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"Just running out of steam," MU's David Joplin said. "I think we guarded them extremely well the first half, and we just have to keep up those same efforts throughout the game. It just made it difficult as time went on."
Clingan finished with 22 points and 16 rebounds. He is the first player since Georgetown legend Patrick Ewing in 1984 to have at least 20 points and 15 rebounds in a Big East final.
"He puts you in a bind as a team defensively because it's hard to guard him with one guy," Smart said. "And the way we defend pick-and-rolls, sometimes smaller guys get on him, and that's a problem. But he does that to a lot of people."
Connecticut's Donovan Clingan shoots over Marquette's Ben Gold during the first half on Saturday night.
Oso Ighodaro joins other banged-up Marquette players like Stevie Mitchell
MU won the Big East tournament last season , and this season the Golden Eagles players and coaches have said the most important thing is a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
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How healthy the Golden Eagles will be when they play next week is the biggest question, with the roster largely made up of the walking wounded.
"When you play in this league with the physicality with which teams are allowed to play, there's going to be a lot of different bumps and bruises and things that come up," Smart said.
Kolek, the unanimous all-Big East first-team player and likely consensus All-American , sits atop the list of concerns. He missed his sixth straight games since suffering and oblique injury on Feb. 28, but Smart said before the Golden Eagles opened Big East tournament play "the plan is absolutely for him to play next week."
Another injury cropped up on Saturday when big man Oso Ighodaro banged his left knee in the second half. Smart pulled Ighodaro with just over seven minutes remaining as a precaution.
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"He was struggling getting up and down the floor, so I took him out because he didn't look like he was moving well," Smart said.
Ighodaro did not want to make a big deal about it.
"I'm good," Ighodaro said in the MU locker room. "I just hit my knee a little bit. I'm good"
MU starting guard Stevie Mitchell was wincing as he moved around the locker room. He played with his left shoulder wrapped after taking a wicked hit while drawing an offensive foul against Providence in the semifinals Friday.
"Warrior," Smart said. "That's the status update on him. He'll probably play in our next game. Not probably, almost definitely. But he's also banged up. He's got an assortment of different things."
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The injury report doesn't stop there. Chase Ross, elevated to the starting lineup in Kolek's absence, aggravated a nagging left leg injury in the semifinals.
MU finds out its NCAA Tournament matchup on Sunday. There will be a lot of ice and rehab for the Golden Eagles before they take the court in the first round on Thursday or Friday.
"Nobody is 100% at this time of year," Mitchell said. "I think we need to take these next few days to get our bodies right. Get back to as close to 100% as they can be. That'll be good for us."
Marquette turns attention to March Madness
Despite the maladies and the loss in the title game, there were positives for the Golden Eagles from their time in New York.
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Freshman guard Zaide Lowery had some nice moments with more playing time because of Kolek's injury, including five points in 14 minutes against Connecticut. He showed he wasn't intimidated by playing in front of a sellout crowd at an arena known as "The Mecca of Basketball."
"Just really be ready, stay ready," Lowery said. "Once you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.
"Came in this weekend, did the best I could to help my team win. We came up short, but we got bigger things ahead of us."
Kam Jones and Ighodaro made the all-tournament team, along with Clingan, St. John's guard Daniss Jenkins and Providence guard Devin Carter. The Huskies' Tristen Newton , who had 13 points and 10 assists against MU, was named most outstanding player.
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Jones scored a team-high 13 points against the Huskies, and he had 54 over his three games at Madison Square Garden.
MU hasn't been to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2013. Jones wants this team to end the drought.
"We want to be playing our best basketball every game, starting with the first round," Jones said. "It's single elimination, and it's non-negotiable to bring your best every game in March Madness."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Donovan Clingan helps UConn beat Marquette 73-57 in Big East final
