Villanova seeks to end its slump against No. 10 Marquette on Senior Night

Villanova is in the throes of a three-game losing streak, its longest in six years, and focused on ending it Wednesday night at Finneran Pavilion against 10th-ranked Marquette. So you’ll have to excuse Eric Paschall if he doesn’t sound all that excited about Senior Night.

“I feel like my parents will want me to be focused on the game more than anything,” the Wildcats forward said Tuesday after practice, “so I’m more focused on the game. It’s a great thing for my parents. They’ve done a lot. It’s definitely good for them, but I’m just focused on the game the whole time.”

Paschall and fellow fifth-year senior Phil Booth will be the stars of pregame ceremonies before the final game at the Finn this season. But once the ball goes up, the 'Cats will be concentrating on returning to the way they had been playing when they were building an 11-game winning streak that was snapped Feb. 9 at Marquette.

It will be no easy task. The Golden Eagles (23-4, 12-2 Big East) have won four straight and lead the Big East in the three main shooting categories – field-goal, three-point and free-throw percentages – in conference games. All-America candidate Markus Howard, the nation’s sixth-leading scorer, put up 38 on the Wildcats in Marquette’s 66-65 victory.

Meanwhile, Villanova (20-8, 11-4), which needs to win to stay in the hunt for the conference regular-season championship, is in a horrendous shooting slump. In its last three games, all on the road, the team has made just 35.4 percent of its shots from the floor overall, and 27.5 percent from three-point range, while averaging 64 points in losses to St. John’s, Georgetown and Xavier.

On Sunday, the Wildcats led for more than 25 minutes before missing 11 consecutive shots in a scoreless stretch of 9 minutes, 9 seconds, leading to a 17-0 run by the Musketeers that secured their 66-54 victory.

“We go through stretches,” 'Cats coach Jay Wright said. “We’ve been in good shape in those games and then we go through a long lull when we don’t make shots, and it affects our defense. That’s part of being an inexperienced team. Not making shots can affect your defense.”

Defense is a major area of emphasis. Villanova used its defense to rally from a 15-point deficit and took the lead in its first meeting with Marquette. It had a final possession to win the game, but the Golden Eagles’ defense had the final say, trapping Booth under the backboard, leading to a poor shot at the buzzer.

“We saw so many things in that game that we could have done better,” Booth said. “So of course we wanted to have that one, but we learned from it.”

Despite the Wildcats’ recent struggles, Wright, Paschall, and Booth all insist that the team has not lost confidence. The coach said they have worked on making sure that missing shots “does not affect our defense and our psyche,” not being afraid to take the next shot.

“We really pride ourselves on learning from every situation and coming back with a fresh attitude and with great confidence in our next challenge,” Wright said. “Our guys have done that. We hurt after every one of these losses and then we come back and go to work. I love these guys. I love how they respond. We go into every game with confidence and we will again” Wednesday night.

Senior Night ceremonies will include Mikal Bridges, who left for the NBA last year after winning his second national championship with the Wildcats, and received permission from the Phoenix Suns to participate. The Suns don’t play again until Friday. He has made 45 starts in 62 games and is averaging 8.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 steals.

“It’s going to be good,” Bridges said. “I came in with the guys, Phil and E [Paschall], so it’s cool to go out there with them, and I’m excited.”

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