For a second there, it looked like history was set to repeat itself. Marquette found themselves in a tight, down-to-the-wire finish with Seton Hall after Golden Eagles let a 10-point lead with three minutes left slip away. Thankfully, Pirates would only force overtime, but Marquette did not have Luke Fischer who fouled out of the game. Things looked very grim. But somehow, some way, Golden Eagles found a way to pull it out in overtime with an 89-86 victory.

Matt Heldt’s big moment
Imagine being Matt Heldt for a second… He gets thrown into this game heading to overtime facing Angel Delgado who pulled down 13, yes 13, offensive rebounds, and you have to hold your ground as the only big man left. Heldt played great defense on Delgado and even drew a charge that helped Marquette gain another position. He pulled down a nice rebound or two as well. What a game from him stepping up when it mattered the most.

Markus Howard shows off his grit.
There aren’t many superlatives left for Markus Howard. He’s been absurd all year, and one of the best players in the country at the ripe age of 17.. Howard had 22 points with six assists and zero turnovers in 42 minutes of play. Steve Wojciechowski called him a ‘bad boy’ in his post-game presser, and he’s right. Howard is a bad man. He looked great out there again tonight and held his water against the Hall pressure.

Haanif Cheatham’s day is going to come sooner rather than later
Man, what a weird game for Hainy. He played the full game, 45 minutes, no rest. Cheatham also scored 15 points with seven rebounds and five assists. Yet, he missed some big free throws down the stretch and looked timid at times to shoot the basketball. There were things to build off from this game for Cheatham, but there are some problems that still need to be ironed out. He needs to find that belief again that he’s a good player.

Rebounding was a major issue
There are not going to be many teams like this one who has bullies in the paint that will outwork you for every bucket. Hall is one of the best rebounding teams in the country. That being said, there’s no reason to give up 27 offensive rebounds. The rebounding was 54-33 in favor of Pirates. That’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s a minor miracle Marquette won this game with the rebounding discrepancy

Bad free throw night – A mirage or large numbers balancing out?
God bless Brian Anderson. He’s one of the best and reminds me of baseball season. But he did bang the drum a bit about Marquette’s abilities to shoot free throws only to see the team miss seven out of our 20 for the game. Marquette is the best free throw shooting team in the Big East, and second in the country. My guess is this is just an off night, or we could see the team averaging out a little bit going from great to very good free throw shooting team. It’s something to watch in the coming week.

Players of the game: Matt Heldt (Marquette) and Desi Rodriguez (Seton Hall)

Next Up: Marquette plays host to DePaul on Saturday afternoon. First time in awhile, Golden Eagles get a home Saturday game. Blue Demons had their first Big East win versus Providence this week, but they’re not a good team. If Marquette is a tournament team, they take care of business here and give Blue Demons zero chance at winning this game. Can’t look ahead to Butler on Monday morning.

Charlie.