LINKS: Georgetown’s Gloom Grows Against Golden Eagles, Will Visit Seton Hall Tuesday

Your Georgetown Hoyas (6-20, 1-14) dropped another BIG EAST matchup, this time to the #10 Marquette Golden Eagles (20-6, 12-3). After the game, Bobby Bancroft caught up with Ben Steele to talk about Marquette, Georgetown, and the rest of the conference.

Georgetown will head up I-95 to visit the Seton Hall Pirates (15-11, 8-7) on Tuesday night for a Valentine's Day matchup at 6PM on CBS Sports Network. The Pirates are fighting to get an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament and a loss to Georgetown could muck things up.

Meanwhile, the Hoyas a hoping to break a 5-game losing streak after losing 33 of their last 34 BIG EAST games.

Here are the links:

Hoyas Drop Saturday Matchup to No. 10/10 Marquette | GUHOYAS

A trio of Hoyas reached double figures with Jay Heath tallying a game-best 18 points but a quintet of Golden Eagles tallied double digits in the weekend matchup.

“I love [Akok Akok’s] energy, I love his effort, I love the fight that he brings. He started a little slow but those blocks that he made down the stretch were key blocks.” - Head Coach Patrick Ewing on Akok Akok’s five blocks ...

Moving back into the starting lineup, Jay Heath led a trio of Hoyas in double figures with 18 points on seven made field goals. He added four rebounds and a pair of assists.

Bryson Mozone came off the bench with 11 points on efficient 4-for-6 shooting to go along with a trio of steals.

10th-ranked Marquette moves into first place in Big East basketball standings with road victory at Georgetown | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“We’re not the best one-on-one team” MU guard Kam Jones said. “We play a lot better when we’re moving the ball. Get everyone involved. Lots of passes. Lots of actions. Lots of possessions.”

The ball was certainly popping for MU, with Tyler Kolek (14 points and eight assists) and Oso Ighodaro (14 points, seven rebounds, five assists) spearheading an attack that led to 24 assists on 35 field goals...

In two games against Georgetown this season, Kolek has put up 23 assists against one turnover.

“They’re a very good team,” Hoyas coach Patrick Ewing said. “Kolek, I think he’s the head of the snake. He does everything. He makes all the right plays that need to be made on offense. He drives. He facilitates.”

N0. 10/10 #MUBB Downs Georgetown, 89-75

The No. 10/10 Marquette University men’s basketball team (20-6, 12-3 BIG EAST) pulled away for an 89-75 victory at Georgetown (6-20, 1-14 BIG EAST) Saturday afternoon in BIG EAST Conference action.

The win moved Marquette into sole possession of first place in the BIG EAST, a half game ahead of Xavier (11-3) and the two teams meet Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum.

The Golden Eagles led by as many as 25 points in the second half and each of the nine players to see extended minutes scored. MU shot 52.2 percent from the floor for the game and knocked down seven of its first 10 opportunities after the intermission.

Marquette led 45-33 at the intermission after shooting 54.3 percent from the floor. Eight of the nine players to see action scored at least 10 points, led by Ighodaro’s 12 points. The Golden Eagles largest lead of the stanza came as the buzzer sounded.

That’s 20: #10 Marquette 89, Georgetown 75 | Anonymous Eagle

MU’s solution to both looming issues for this game? Just make a ton of shots, especially long range ones. The Golden Eagles shot 7-for-17 (41%) from beyond the arc in the first half, and then followed that up with an 8-for-14 (57%) long range shooting effort in the second period. All told, that’s 52.2% overall from the field and 48.4% from three-point land for the game.

A 9-0 run for Marquette put them up early, 14-4, and that set the tone for the rest of the game. It wasn’t going to stay all Golden Eagles all of the time, and the Hoyas punched back, like a perfectly competent Big East team, and got it within five, 19-14, just past the midway point of the half. After Jay Heath scored for GU to keep the margin at five, the Golden Eagles got back-to-back threes from Kam Jones and David Joplin knocked the lead back to double digits in a hurry. Georgetown kept answering, cut the lead back to six, and it looked like we might have been heading in the direction of a real basketball game with less than four minutes to play in the half...

When you have a 10 point early lead, and then played a back-and-forth half from there, being up 12 at the break while holding the other team to less than a point per possession is pretty dang good.

Seton Hall to tap into tourney mode vs. Georgetown | Field Level Media

“We’ve got a tough group of guys in there, in a tough situation, and we’re going to keep fighting to the end,” guard Jamir Harris said following the Pirates’ 58-54 loss at Villanova on Saturday, per the Asbury Park Press. “We’ve got to fight. Every guy in that locker room believes that, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Harris scored six points, which pushed him over 1,000 for his career, in Seton Hall’s setback against the Wildcats, when the Pirates shot just 39.6 percent from the field and committed 18 turnovers, which Villanova flipped into 23 points.

Seton Hall likely will lean on Al-Amir Dawes, who leads the team with 12.3 points per game, to energize a Pirates offense against a feckless Georgetown unit that ranks last in the conference in scoring defense, shooting defense and 3-point defense entering Monday’s action. All of those deficiencies cost the Hoyas in an 89-75 home loss to No. 10 Marquette on Saturday.

Pirates’ Strong Defensive Effort Not Enough At Villanova | SHU Pirates

The Seton Hall men’s basketball team held its 10th opponent this season to under 60 points but the defensive effort wasn’t enough as the Pirates couldn’t come away with their fifth straight road win against a BIG EAST team in a 58-54 loss at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night.

The Pirates (15-11, 8-7 BIG EAST) now share fifth place in the BIG EAST standings with UConn. Junior Kadary Richmond (Brooklyn, N.Y.) finished with 10 points, nine assists and five rebounds and senior Al-Amir Dawes (Newark, N.J.) chipped in with 13 points. Senior Tyrese Samuel (Montreal, Quebec) posted a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds...

Seton Hall had one more run left in them though as Dawes made both ends of a one-and-one and junior Femi Odukale (Brooklyn, N.Y.) came up with a steal on one end and and nailed a three-pointer on the other. Next, the Pirates came up with a stop on the defense and Dawes creeped the Pirates closer with a three on the fastbreak, making it a six-point game, 53-47, at the 1:51 mark. A late three by graduate student Jamir Harris (North Brunswick, N.J.) made it a four-point game with seven seconds left but it was too little too late as Villanova came away with the win.

Villanova grind out 58-54 win over Seton Hall | VUHoops

The Pirates would get as close as one before Brandon Slater heated up to give Villanova a cushion down the stretch. A Cam Whitmore and-one would extend the lead back to 10, and although the Pirates made it a bit close for comfort at the end, they were unable to overtake the ‘Cats.

The Wildcats were led by Eric Dixon, who finished with 19 points and five rebounds. Mr. 1,000 Caleb Daniels also had a productive night, finishing with 18 points of his own, before fouling out. Cam Whitmore added 12 points and two rebounds to round out the scoring.

The Pirates had a balanced scoring attacked led by Tyrese Samuel’s 14-point, 10-rebound outing. Khadary Richmond added 10 points, nine assists, and five rebounds. Al-Amir Dawes finished with 13 points of his own.

While it was nice to be in control down the stretch for the second game in a row, what was more impressive was Villanova’s team defense. The addition of Jordan Longino certainly impacted the teams overall defense, but every single player stepped up in the end.

Seton Hall’s Kadary Richmond thriving under Shaheen Holloway | NYPOST

Lack of consistency was always the knock on Richmond in his first two college seasons. He would play great one game and be a no-show the next. His motor came under criticism. Lately at least, he’s putting it all together. He has enjoyed a strong season, averaging career-highs of 10 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals, along with 4.0 assists and shooting 40.7 percent from 3-point range. Holloway, a former point guard who was the star of last March for coaching 15th-seeded Saint Peter’s to the Elite Eight before taking the Seton Hall job, has been a major plus for Richmond.

“He’s just not allowing me to be mediocre, always wanting more from me and my team,” said Richmond, who tied for a game-high plus-17 rating in 39 strong minutes. “He just pushes me every day and reminds me of my goals and the player I want to be.”

Seton Hall basketball falls at Villanova, denting NCAA Tournament hopes | Asbury Park Press

The Hall’s margin for error is approaching zero. First comes a can’t-lose against last-place Georgetown (6-20, 1-14) on Tuesday (6 p.m., CBS Sports Network)...

Twelve Big East wins should be the magic number. That means winning four of the final five. It’s a lot to ask for a team so limited on offense.

“We’ve got tough a group of guys in there, in a tough situation, and we’re going to keep fighting to the end,” Harris said. “We’ve got to fight. Every guy in that locker room believes that, and that’s what we’re going to do. No question about it.”

Is Holloway still confident in this team? “Yeah, I’ll figure it out,” he said. “I’ll get back to the game plan, I’ll get back to the lab and kind of stir something up to figure out how to win on Tuesday.”