(MARQUETTE COMMUNICATIONS) – The Marquette University men’s basketball team (12-19, 7-13 BIG EAST) concluded conference play with a 68-62 victory against No. 4/4 UConn (27-4, 17-3 BIG EAST) on Saturday afternoon at Fiserv Forum in the regular-season finale.
Freshman guard Nigel James Jr. led the way offensively with 19 points and seven assists and sophomore forward Royce Parham chipped in 13 points. Senior guard Chase Ross added 14 points, while Adrien Stevens finished with 11 points.
Marquette trailed 35-33 at the intermission after James Jr.’s long jumper capped the first-half scoring. UConn led by as many as eight points, but MU remained within striking distance thanks to 54.5 percent shooting from the floor. MU’s defense held the Huskies to just 38.9 percent from the field overall and 1-of-10 from distance in the first half.
A personal 8-0 run by Parham, which included a pair of treys, gave MU its largest lead of the game to that point at 49-45 with 13:19 on the clock and forced a UConn timeout. Marquette extended that run to 11-0 for a 52-45 advantage and led 55-47 at the under-eight media timeout.
The Golden Eagles increased their lead to double digits for the first time on back-to-back treys from senior Chase Ross, forcing another UConn timeout with MU leading 61-49 with 5:21 on the clock. The Huskies would bring the game back within two after a 10-3 scoring run moved the score to 64-62 in favor of MU. With the shot clock turned off, UConn missed a game-tying layup, and a foul followed by double technical fouls on the Huskies would put Ross at the line, who knocked down four free throws to seal the 68-62 win.
UP NEXT: The Golden Eagles open BIG EAST Conference tourney action on Wednesday, March 11. The Marquette University men’s basketball team has earned the No. 7 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament and will face 10th-seeded Xavier at 5:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday, March 11 in the event’s opening around at Madison Square Garden.
NOTABLES
- Marquette honored seniors Ben Gold, Jonah Lucas, Casey O’Malley and Chase Ross during a pregame ceremony
- Gold and Ross are two of just four BIG EAST scholarship players (Corey Floyd Jr. – PC, Alex Karaban, UConn) to play all four years at their respective schools
- Marquette defeated a top-five opponent for the first time since defeating No. 1 Kansas in the 2023 Maui Invitational on Nov. 21, 2023
- Gold played in his 137th career game and is tied for third all-time at MU and Ross is tied for sixth with 133 appearances
- James Jr. capped the BIG EAST regular season with double figures in scoring in 19-of-20 games
- Royce Parham reached double figures in scoring for the 14th time in 19 league appearances (missed game at Georgetown)
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