LOUISVILLE 70, MARQUETTE 51
Louisville, Ky. - With a chance to build on their overnight Big East lead, the Marquette Golden Eagles came to the KFC Center on Sunday and laid an egg.
OK, so that might be a harsh way to frame the 70-51 loss to No. 12 Louisville for a team that has far outgrown preseason expectations. But in a year in which the conference is as predictable as Corey Hart's health, Marquette played its worst game since losing by 33 points to Florida in November.
The bad news: The No. 25 Golden Eagles (15-5, 6-2) whiffed on a chance to be alone in first place with the loss to the No. 12 Cardinals (18-4, 6-3) after Syracuse lost Saturday to Pittsburgh to give Marquette a half-game lead.
The good news: Marquette is still in first place with the Orange and will live to fight again Wednesday at South Florida, which it beat by 13 last Monday.
But it cannot perform as tentatively as it did Sunday. Six assists against 17 turnovers will win exactly as many games as the number of times league-leader Davante Gardner got to the free-throw line against Louisville:
Zero.
"We're not a one-, two-, three-guy team," coach Buzz Williams said. "Davante wasn't good. Jamil (Wilson) wasn't good. Vander (Blue) was OK. Trent (Lockett) continues to play well. Junior (Cadougan) was not any good.
"We have to have everybody playing well against a team like Louisville."
The Golden Eagles played well for precisely one stretch. They began with a 9-1 lead, but the Cardinals, with a flurry of transition baskets forced off steals and turnovers, finished the half with a 37-15 run.
Then it was over, as over as the 38-26 rebounding advantage by the long, athletic and fast Cardinals said it was over.
"They absolutely socked us," Williams said.
Give it to Louisville for that. Ranked as high as No. 1 this season, the Cardinals had lost three of four and were out to spank someone before another sellout crowd of more than 22,000.
That someone happened to be Marquette, which was standing in the way of Rick Pitino becoming further embarrassed or having the chance to move up in the rankings when so many top-10 teams lost this week.
To that end, Louisville remained in character. Despite the fact that most teams have played zone defense against the shooting-challenged Golden Eagles, the Cardinals played man at least 80% of the game. It caused all kinds of problems for the Marquette backcourt when Louisville trapped in the half court. Between them, Blue and Cadougan had seven turnovers.
By himself, Louisville guard Peyton Siva had seven assists, or one more than Marquette's entire roster managed.
In the end, the sum-of-its-parts team that Marquette has become didn't add up at the behest of Louisville's killer-instinct will.
"If everybody's not going well, it's hard for us to win," said Blue, who led Marquette with 17 points. "We depend on everyone doing well.
"Louisville is a great team. They prey off turnovers. Part of it was our stupidity. We made some plays we don't normally do."
Lockett continued his arc with 16 points. But without anything from Gardner and Cadougan, who always seems to struggle against Siva (14 points) and Russ Smith (18), the Golden Eagles had no chance, especially with the lopsided stats.
"They're a great team," said Lockett. "Give them all the credit. But if we play any team with those numbers, we aren't going to win."
The Golden Eagles are 1-2 on the road in the Big East with six away games to play. And it's still early.
"I have a lot of respect for Marquette," Pitino said. "There are a lot of things I love about them."
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