Marquette Golden Eagles had a path to building up their Big East resume. They would play St. John’s, DePaul, and Georgetown in a row. They are three of the bottom of feeders of the Big East. Marquette continues to win those games, and they’re in a good position in the Big East as well as contending for an NCAA Tournament. Well, the Georgetown game is off because of COVID-19, so, now it became more imperative to win these two games. Marquette hung on for dear life against St. John’s. It went back and forth in the second half yet Marquette had multiple big shots late to endure the final Red Storm push.

Player of the Game: Greg Elliott – What Marquette got from Greg Elliott off the bench was needed in this one. He provided an alternative scoring option for the Golden Eagles. Elliott hit three big threes in this one along with a couple inside the painted area for a 13 point day. He was all over the floor defensively too doing some of the little things that do not always show up in the box score.

Honorable Mention: Justin Lewis – Another game, another good one from Justin Lewis. He scored 13 off the bench with seven rebounds. Lewis took to St. John’s on the interior with four made baskets as well as did work from the free-throw line making five of six from the charity stripe. There are times in most games this season where both Lewis and Dawson Garcia feel ungauardable.

What went right for Marquette: Koby McEwen is not afraid of the big moment – It wasn’t the best game for Koby McEwen. He only scored seven points, had an offensive rating of 71 and turned the ball over four times. But when the chips were down late, he made something happen. McEwen went right down the lane with a tough left-handed layup to give Marquette the lead. McEwen is not having as productive of a season with his offense. But he’s doing much more than scoring the basketball.

Doing some digging on Hoop-Explorer, and Koby McEwen's value for #mubb really comes into focus. He's 1 of only 2 players with positive on/off splits on D, putting up a +9.2 AdjD/100.

That's impressive on its own, but add in that he's had the most possessions, it's nuts.

— Paint Touches (@PaintTouches) January 17, 2021

What went wrong for Marquette: The turnovers were a real problem – 19 turnovers are not going to get it done. That’s a poor effort from the Golden Eagles. Much of that was due to the St. John’s press that Marquette couldn’t handle in the second half. Not sure why a press continues to plauge this team, but it’s been an issue for Steve Wojciechowski’s entire coaching career. They need to go back to the drawing board.

Next up: Marquette will play DePaul on Saturday, but there is a chance that the Golden Eagles could look elsewhere before then. UConn plays Xavier on Wednesday. Xavier is dealing with another COVID issue. If the Xavier game goes on pause, we could see Marquette-UConn bumped up. We’ll see what happens there.

Charlie.