On Jan. 10, Villanova men’s basketball picked up its third consecutive conference road win against Marquette, 76-73, in Milwaukee, WI, at the Fiserv Forum.
Villanova (13-3, 4-1 Big East) needed up until the final minute to beat Marquette on the road for the first time in six years. Villanova’s defense allowed Marquette (6-11, 1-5 Big East) to have one of its best offensive performances of Big East Play. However, Villanova freshman guard Acaden Lewis lifted Villanova’s offense by totaling a team-high 20 points and tying a career-high eight assists.
“Acaden Lewis for a freshman, what we’re asking him to do, he’s continuing to get better and better,” Villanova head coach Kevin Willard said in a TNT postgame interview. “He’s just playing great.”
Lewis is now averaging a team-high 13 points and 5.2 assists per game.
The Wildcats shot 31-for-56 (55%) from field goal range, 7-for-25 (28%) from the three-point line and 7-for-7 (100%) from the foul line.
Redshirt freshman forward Matt Hodge followed behind with 14 points. Graduate guard Devin Askew netted 13 points, all in the second half, to allow Villanova to escape with a win.
Villanova opened the game with a fast start, connecting on all of its first six field goal attempts. Hodge heated up from deep, shooting 4-for-4 on three-pointers to open the game. Lewis dished out six assists across the first half, including a string of early passes and scores in the paint.
However, the Wildcats struggled to contain Marquette’s three-point shooting in the first half, especially from freshman guard Nigel James Jr. He ended the first half with 19 points, shooting 7-for-10 (70%) from the field. James Jr. ended the game with a career-high 31 points, shooting 11-for-14 from the field and 7-for-9 from beyond the arc.
Instead, Villanova used its offense to outscore Marquette to close the half, which included two three-pointers from sophomore guard redshirt Bryce Lindsay.
Villanova led Marquette, 44-38, at the half.
With the help of its six-point halftime lead, Villanova was able to hold a lead for the majority of the second half, despite trading scoring possessions with Marquette. Halfway through, Villanova got into foul trouble with junior guard Tyler Perkins and Brennan, both eventually picking up four fouls each.
Brennan went to the bench after his fourth foul and returned soon after, only to pick up his fifth and final foul on an offensive possession. He fouled out with just over four minutes to play. Without its big man, Villanova was forced to play small with Hodge taking over the center role.
“Luckily [Marquette] went small,” Willard said. “So we were able to play [Matt Hodge] at the five and Malachi [Palmer] at the four. And so we didn’t have to really worry about battling something at the rim. We were able to kind of go small with them.”
Askew came off the bench and found play 17 minutes in the second half. He shot 5-for-7 (71.4%) from the field and hauled in four rebounds. It is a resurgence for Askew, who had been averaging six points and 30% from the field through the first four conference games.
“[Devin] has been playing really well,” Willard said. “The last four or five games [he] hasn’t been shooting well, but he’s been playing well. And I thought he got a couple of good mismatches, hit a couple of really big pull-up jumpers that kind of settled us down and kept the lead going.”
Marquette closed its deficit down to one point with three minutes left in regulation. However, Hodge drove to the basket and dropped in a layup to three points with 1:45 left.
Marquette’s Royce Parham responded with a layup of his own on the other end to make it a one-point game again. Finally, Lewis drove to the net and passed it to Perkins instead for a score to make it a three-point game with 11 seconds to go.
Marquette called a timeout with seven seconds left and attempted a deep three-pointer, but it did not connect with the basket.
“I think we’ve really developed a road identity,” Villanova head coach Kevin Willard said. “I think we need to take that identity and bring it home and really have that same kind of dog mentality that we have on the road at home. I think if we can develop that same attitude, we’ll continue to get better.”
Villanova is now set to return to action against Providence (8-7, 1-3 Big East) on Tuesday, Jan. 13, in Rhode Island for its second consecutive road game (6:30 p.m., FS1).
