NEW YORK — Hands on knees, head down, Maurice Acker lingered motionless on the floor. Jerel McNeal was in the same position except with his eyes locked on the scoring table. Wesley Matthews walked slowly upcourt, ball under his arm, staring off into nowhere.
In a season of promise, Marquette has endured its share of debilitating gut shots. But nothing was as eviscerating as this. Not even close.
The Golden Eagles overcame a 16-point halftime deficit Thursday in a Big East tournament quarterfinal against Villanova only to be clobbered emotionally by the Wildcats’ Dwayne Anderson scoring on a back-door layup as time expired to propel his team to a 76-75 victory.
“I don’t really know if there’s a word for it,” Matthews said. “Shock, disbelief, that we fought so hard in the second half to get to where we were. And five seconds changed it completely for us.”
In the first half, Marquette shot a grim 5 of 24 (20.8 percent). Exactly one starter — McNeal — recorded a field goal before halftime. But the Golden Eagles chipped away at Villanova’s 47-31 lead and surged ahead on a Lazar Hayward three-pointer with 1 minute 36 seconds to play. After a traveling call on Villanova’s Corey Stokes with 40 seconds left and Marquette ahead by one, McNeal missed with 14 seconds left. The Wildcats had no timeouts, and the ball wound up in guard Reggie Redding’s hands as time wound down.
Redding dribbled to the middle of the floor and into traffic, then found a cutting Anderson under the basket with tenths of a second left. Thus the Golden Eagles enter the NCAA tournament losing five of six and wondering if they have magic left to conjure.
“They made a great play at the end,” Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. “They deserved the victory and we’ll handle it the right way.”
Bubble chatter: Once again Providence coach Keno Davis was left to ponder life on the NCAA tournament bubble after his team’s 18-point quarterfinal loss to Louisville on Thursday. This time the subject of the Friars’ quality losses — two to Louisville and one to Connecticut — came up.
“I really find it hard to believe that … it would hurt a team to have played so many teams that are quality NCAA teams,” Davis said.
