OMAHA, Neb. – The Marquette men's basketball team faced a near-Herculean task on Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles were without two of their best players in seniors Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro. That left No. 5 MU undermanned and also undersized against 12th-ranked Creighton. And, oh yeah, the game was at one of the toughest venues in the Big East, the CHI Health Center.
MU showed some grit and put up an admirable fight, but the Golden Eagles didn't have enough firepower and fell in an 89-75 loss.
Box score: Creighton 89, Marquette 75
"Really was proud of our guys' fight and connectivity, energy, resilience, stamina, belief," MU head coach Shaka Smart said. "We got two guys on our team that are probably going to play a long time in the NBA. They weren't even in the building.
"But our guys didn't blink. So really, really proud of them. I thought we absolutely got tired."
The Golden Eagles (22-7, 13-5 Big East) announced about a hour before tipoff that Kolek would miss the game against the Bluejays (22-8, 13-6) with an oblique injury.
Kolek did not make the trip with the team. He suffered the injury in MU's victory over Providence on Wednesday. He is averaging 15 points per game and leads the nation in assists per game at 7.6.
When will Kolek be able to play?
"That's the big question," Smart said. "Wish I knew. Wish I could say for sure."
The open-ended nature of Kolek's recovery is hard to stomach with two games remaining in the regular season.
"The good news is he's already feeling better, significantly," Smart said. "The tough news is it's March 2. It's not the best time of year for something like this.
"But we say control the controllables. This is something that is completely outside our control. For him, the best thing for his recovery was to stay at home in Milwaukee and rest. We're going to be very aggressive in helping him move forward and get ready to go. At the same time, he'll play when he's ready to play."
Ighodaro was in Omaha but stayed at the team's hotel during the game. He averages 14 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.
"He had not been feeling well yesterday," Smart said. "He wanted to practice yesterday. The trainer held him out. "Didn't look great. Made the trip. I think as of last night he felt like he was going to play and then this morning was feeling worse."
MU plans on honoring the seniors during MU's home finale against No. 3 Connecticut on Wednesday at Fiserv Forum.
Chase Ross and Ben Gold took Kolek and Ighodaro's starting spots alongside Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell and David Joplin.
That lineup could be a sneak preview of next season's MU team. Joplin and Jones took over as the go-to players.
"Everybody had to give a little more," Joplin said. "For myself, I knew I had to give more. Offensively, defensively. And just play a lot more."
The scrappy Golden Eagles trailed just 42-40 at halftime after scoring six unanswered points, including a tough bucket by Gold in the waning seconds.
Creighton shot 8 for 16 on three-pointers in the first half.
Jones led MU in the first half with 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting.
There were bright spots for several MU players who don't normally get much spotlight, including freshman guard Zaide Lowery, who showed his "three-and-D" potential with two highlight-reel blocks and two triples.
"I think the first thing is just an appreciation and acceptance of how challenging it is," Smart said. "And then the next step is an acceptance of exactly what you need to do, knowing you are not going to be perfect.
"But taking ownership of that, along with your teammates. I thought the way our guys helped each other was very, very good. And the key is staying together after the game gets done."
Jones hit a layup on MU's first possession of the second half to tie the game. He finished with a team-high 23 points.
The Golden Eagles kept hanging around despite the Bluejays trying to throw knockout blows.
Joplin joined Jones in stepping up his offensive production with Ighodaro and Kolek out. Joplin sometimes had to play center against Creighton's 7-foot-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner.
Joplin had MU's highlight of the game when he drove and threw down a one-handed dunk on Kalkbrenner, who is the two-time defending Big East player of the year.
"I just saw the lane open up and knew the only way to get over him is to dunk it," Joplin said. "I was thinking that the whole way through."
Joplin, a junior, did not have a dunk in his first two seasons with the Golden Eagles. He's had a handful this season.
"We been working on it," Joplin said. "I'm glad I got my bounce back."
Joplin had 14 of his 21 points in the second half.
It looked like the Bluejays might pull away when they took a 60-50 lead, but the Golden Eagles hit back with a 7-0 run.
MU pulled within 63-62 on a three-pointer by Jones with just under nine minutes remaining. But the Golden Eagles couldn't get over the hump.
Joplin had another tough basket to close Creighton's lead to 69-67 at the 4:24 mark. The Bluejays' Baylor Scheierman and Francisco Farabello answered with back-to-back three-pointers. That gave Creighton momentum to finish off the game. A couple minutes later, Scheierman nailed consecutive triples to increase the lead to 81-69 and set off deafening roars from the home supporters among the sold-out crowd of 18,011 fans.
MU had the same starting lineup in every game last season. This season, the Golden Eagles have suffered much worse injury luck. Sean Jones is out for the session after tearing his ACL. Ross and Mitchell also missed multiple games.
"Adversity is part of life," Smart said. "We train for adversity. We prepare for adversity. We have a plan for adversity.
"I think the answer is and can always be found in each other. Giving each other energy. Supporting each other. And at the same time when an individual is feeling fatigued, the energy that he needs will always be found in his teammates. Always."
That's why Joplin thought the team had a strong effort on Saturday.
"We don't have our two oldest guys, our seniors," Joplin said. "Our best players, some may say.
"So we just got to battle with whoever's with us. We're going to go out there and fight. Warriors."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette loses to Creighton without Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro
