No. 10 Marquette ties St. John’s for Big East lead with 87-74 victory over Villanova

Stevie Mitchell matched a career high with 21 points and No. 10 Marquette continued its recent domination of Villanova by beating the Wildcats 87-74 on Friday night.

Chase Ross added 18 points and Kam Jones had 16 to help Marquette (17-3, 8-1 Big East) beat Villanova for an eighth consecutive time and tie No. 20 St. John’s (17-3, 8-1) for first place in the Big East.

The Golden Eagles haven’t lost to Villanova since Shaka Smart took over as Marquette’s coach in 2021.

Jordan Longino had a career-high 27 points to go along with seven assists for Villanova (12-9, 5-5). Eric Dixon, who entered the night with a Division I-leading 24.9 points per game, scored 15 of his 18 points after halftime.

Takeaways

Villanova: The good news for Villanova was that Tyler Perkins made his first 3-point basket since Dec. 17. Perkins had gone 0 for 25 from 3-point range over his last eight games, and he missed his first three attempts Friday before finally connecting. Before the slump, Perkins had made 45.3% of his 3-point shots (24 of 53).

Marquette: The Golden Eagles pulled ahead for good less than four minutes in and had their second straight double-digit win since losing 59-57 at home to Xavier last weekend. Marquette won 76-59 at Seton Hall on Tuesday.

Key moment

Villanova trailed 57-51 when Longino stole the ball from Jones, but Marquette’s David Joplin blocked Longino’s layup attempt. On Marquette’s ensuing possession, Zaide Lowery got an offensive rebound and made a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 60-51 with 8:33 left.

Key stats

Marquette committed just six turnovers and had a 16-2 edge in points off turnovers.

Up next

Villanova doesn’t play again until a Feb. 1 home game with Creighton. Marquette is at Butler on Tuesday night.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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