After nearly going scoreless in Saturday’s contest against Seton Hall, newly announced Wooden Award candidate Tyler Kolek was on a mission Tuesday night as Marquette hit the road to take on Villanova. Visibly feeding off the crowd that seemed to have a specific agenda to rattle him, Kolek stepped up in the absence of an injured Kam Jones to take on more of the scoring load, scoring a career-high 32 points as Marquette won what would be a very interesting game on the road, taking down the Wildcats 85-80.
Midway through the first half, you wouldn't have thought the game was going to be interesting at all. Marquette completely dominated all facets of the game and went on multiple scoring runs, extending their first half lead to as high as twenty. But Kyle Neptune’s Villanova squad wouldn’t go away, and throughout the contest would go on multiple scoring runs themselves, creating a see-saw battle throughout. Villanova closed the gap to eight at halftime, and would even take the lead in the second half. A 23-point swing in the middle third of the game set the stage for a close race to the buzzer, and Tyler Kolek would answer the call.
With one of Marquette’s top scorers, Kam Jones sidelined with an ankle injury that he suffered in practice late last week, big-time scoring opportunities opened up for his teammates. Kolek responded with one of the most complete games of the season, scoring a career-high 32 points, adding 9 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals.
All of the things that Kolek does well, he displayed in his career outing. Kolek was driving to the basket to pull defenders away and create shots for Oso Ighodaro and others, driving to the basket to score, captaining the offense to create shots around the perimeter, creating turnovers on defense, and during a season where his 3-point shooting % is down, Kolek hit 5 of 8 from deep, four of those coming during a 6-minute stretch in the second half. It was Kolek’s night, and his ability to steer the ship down the stretch and hit free throws, would ultimately be the difference in Marquette’s 5-point win.
In a welcome sight, Tuesday night also saw the return of Golden Eagles guard Chase Ross after a five-game absence with a shoulder injury. Ross would log 31 minutes and finish with 11 points. A difference maker on defense and overall energy for the team, Ross’s return bodes well for Marquette as they continue to go through the meat of the Big East schedule. Sophomore Ben Gold got his first career start as Marquette started the game with two bigs, but would ultimately fall into more of a typical rotational role.
Villanova, as they have all season, never backed down and put up a fight on their home floor, but just didn’t have all the answers for Kolek and company. Eric Dixon and TJ Bamba both finished with 24 points, leading Villanova in scoring.
Marquette extends their winning streak to five and improves to 16-5 on the season and 7-3 in the Big East, putting them second in the conference behind #1 UCONN. The Golden Eagles head to D.C. to take on Georgetown this Saturday at 2pm ET on FS1.