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Villanova seniors say they need to set a better tone

MILWAUKEE - Earlier this week, before his team departed for Milwaukee and a game against Marquette, Jay Wright talked about taking the opponent's best shot every time Villanova steps onto a basketball court.

MILWAUKEE - Earlier this week, before his team departed for Milwaukee and a game against Marquette, Jay Wright talked about taking the opponent's best shot every time Villanova steps onto a basketball court.

"It has forced us to have a level of concentration that . . . I don't know if you could manufacture it yourself," the head coach said. "Every time we play somebody, we can see they're at another level. So I think our guys are used to that now, so I think they prepare knowing that that's coming."

That's the life not only for the No. 1 team in the country but also for the sport's defending national champion. The Wildcats were dialed in Tuesday night during a first half that saw them go up 15 on the Golden Eagles, a margin that inched up to 17 early in the second half before they gradually broke down in the final six minutes.

Even though Marquette led for only 22 seconds, the only thing that mattered was when the clock hit zeros, and most of the crowd of 14,210 at the Bradley Center poured onto the court to celebrate the stunning 74-72 victory.

It was the second court storming experienced by Villanova this season, but this one could have been prevented if the Wildcats had played 40 minutes instead of 34. They were outscored, 19-4, by the Golden Eagles in the last six minutes, going 2 of 12 from the field and missing the front end of a pair of one-and-ones.

However, there were some signs earlier that this wasn't going to work out well for Villanova.

The Cats chucked 34 three-point attempts, more than half of the 67 shots they took in the game, but made just six, or 17.6 percent. The second half saw 22 threes out of 38 shots and only four makes (18.2 percent), a case of settling for the deep shot against Marquette's 1-3-1 zone.

Kris Jenkins, one of the Big East's most prolific three-point shooters (3.0 per game), combined with Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo to go 0 for 17 from beyond the arc.

"When you take 34 threes, it's something the defense is forcing you into that sometimes, and sometimes you make bad decisions," Wright said. "We didn't make great decisions, and they did a great job forcing us into that. We've got to learn that there's other ways to score than to shoot threes. We learned a lesson the hard way here."

The other issue came on defense. After limiting the Golden Eagles to 34.5 percent shooting in the first half, the Wildcats couldn't keep up their level of play in the second half. Marquette hit 11 of its first 14 attempts to stay in it and shot nearly 70 percent for the period.

After playing only 19 minutes because of foul trouble, Josh Hart gave the Golden Eagles credit but said his team has to keep going no matter how large its margin is.

"We've got to have that heart," the national player of the year candidate said. "They did a great job, but we've got to look at each other and know we didn't play 40 full minutes of Villanova basketball. That's something that can't happen, and that starts with the three seniors. We've got to set that tone."

They had a built-in excuse if they wanted to use it: Tuesday night's weather problems prompted them to go from Philadelphia International to an airport in New Castle, Del., from where their charter departed around 11 p.m. The traveling party arrived at the hotel at 1:15 a.m. Philadelphia time.

"That has nothing to do with this," Hart said. "Anyone can make excuses like that, but we don't make excuses."

The Wildcats don't play again until Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center, but they will need to put in 40 minutes against No. 12 Virginia, one of the nation's best defensive teams. The Cavaliers held Notre Dame, which had been averaging 80 points per game, to 54 in a road victory Tuesday night.

jjuliano@phillynews.com

@joejulesinq