By: MIKE McCURRY
Northwestern’s Chris Collins isn’t the lone member of the Mike Krzyzewski coaching tree to enjoy a successful night on Wednesday.
He is joined in that regard by Marquette’s Steve Wojciechowski, whose Golden Eagles seized a 95-84 victory at Xavier to further stake their claim toward an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.
Andrew Rowsey dropped 20 points and was one of five Marquette players to reach double figures, joined by Jajuan Johnson (19 points), Katin Reinhardt (17), Markus Howard (15), and Sam Hauser (12).
With the win, Marquette completed a season sweep of Xavier, which has dropped six consecutive games to fall squarely on the bubble. After Wednesday’s loss, Xavier is one of the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament field, per ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.
The Golden Eagles feature one of the most prolific offenses in the country, a sharpshooting unit that was firing on all cylinders on Wednesday. They made 64 percent of their shots inside the arc, went 12-of-21 from long distance, and had 19 assists to just 10 turnovers.
"Locked in."
"Red hot."
9 straight FG for #mubb. @FS1 pic.twitter.com/c1spjtX5cF
— MarquetteMBB (@MarquetteMBB) March 2, 2017
Their 95 points on 71 possessions resulted in a 133.0 adjusted offensive efficiency—Marquette’s highest mark against a non-Depaul opponent this season. That clinic-like precision resulted in some Cintas Center history.
Marquette set a new Cintas record for most points by a #Xavier opponent, 95, besting the 93 by Creighton last March
— David Stubenrauch (@XUStatman) March 2, 2017
In his third season on the job, Wojciechowski has employed his collection of knockdown long-range shooters to perfection, leading to a major advantage in production from beyond the arc.
Marquette has connected on a remarkable 44.5 percent of their threes in league play. The Big East’s next best conference-only three-point offense is Creighton, all the way down at 37.9 percent. As a whole, the league hits 35.7 percent of their triples.
That’s just one reason as to why Marquette isn’t merely trending toward the right side of the bubble at this point—they also are growing into a team that nobody is going to want to face in the postseason.
Photo: @MarquetteMBB
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