MYSTERY BOX, PART TWO: Gonzaga 65, Marquette 61

Marquette and Gonzaga squared off in the consolation game of the Coconut Hoops event at Florida Gulf Coast’s Alico Arena on Sunday morning, and nope, did not go well for the Golden Eagles. Marquette ended up taking a 65-61 loss to the Bulldogs, leaving them at 0-2 in Florida this weekend and 4-3 on the season.

I really can’t tell you how the game went because I was not going to reactivate my FloSports subscription for $20 to watch this one game. What I can tell you is that Marquette was up 26-22 at the end of the first quarter, and then never scored even 20 points in a quarter the rest of the game. I can tell you that Marquette was up eight, their largest lead of the game, off a Halle Vice transition bucket with 1:18 left in the first half, a margin that held through halftime.

I can tell you that Gonzaga immediately wiped that lead out with an 8-0 run to start the third quarter, and after that Marquette never led by more than three points for the rest of the game. I can tell you it was Marquette by one, 46-45, going into the fourth quarter. I can tell you MU was up three with 7:43 to go, then up one with 6:06 left, and up two with 4:42 to play after a Jordan Meulemans three-pointer.

I can tell you that Gonzaga answered that bucket with an 8-0 run that, as it turns out, decided the game. MU was able to cut the margin to three immediately after the run, so this was up for grabs with two minutes left. That’s good. Marquette held Gonzaga without a field goal for the final 2:53 of the game. That’s good. They couldn’t put the ball in the basket though, and even though Halle Vice scored with 50 seconds left to get MU within two, they couldn’t do anything else to push it across the line.

The loss means that Marquette will have just one decent win — their home overtime success against Wisconsin — as their non-con support for their NCAA tournament resume, if MU can pull things together in Big East play, at least.

How about some highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and FloSports?

Up Next: Hey, speaking of Big East play, it’s time for that to get underway. MU will have one road and one home game in the league over the next seven days, and they’ll open up conference play this coming Thursday night when they head south on I-94 to face DePaul. Tipoff in that game is scheduled for 8pm Central, and Peacock will have the broadcast. The Blue Demons are 2-6 so far this year and they’ve lost three straight after falling 71-41 to Princeton on Sunday afternoon.

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