VILLANOVA, Pa. ââ'¬" The Villanova Wildcats went back to the laboratory after absorbing their first loss on Dec. 30 at Butler and made enough defensive gains to outlast Marquette 100-90 before 14,210 at the Wells Fargo Center Saturday night. The No. 3 'Cats improved to 14-1 overall, 2-1 BIG EAST and have not lost consecutive games since the 2012-13 season.

The win was the 400th of head coach Jay Wright's Villanova career, which began in 2001.

"I promise you that one day I'll look back on that and be humbled by it," stated Wright. "But right now I'm just happy we improved a little bit defensively after the loss at Butler. It's just nice to have been here for this long."

Markus Howard, who tied a BIG EAST record with 52 points in a 95-90 win at Providence Wednesday night, tallied 37 here.

"Markus got it going again," stated Wright. "He's a great player. We tried to take the 3-pointer away but he scored in other ways. I thought we did a good job on (Andrew) Rowsey and (Sam) Hauser, though. We've still got a lot of work to do, obviously."

Junior Jalen Brunson led Villanova with 27 points. Eric Paschall added 19 points and Mikal Bridges 18 points. Marquette fell to 11-5 overall, 2-2 BIG EAST.

Paschall had done much quality work for the Wildcats through 14 games ââ'¬" defending, rebounding and contributing at the offensive end. But he had yet to find the range from beyond the 3-point arc, draining 2-of-27 in that span.

Paschall calmly stepped into a pair of 3-pointers in the first 90 seconds, drilling both to help stake the Wildcats to an early 6-0 advantage. Some sharp work from junior Jalen Brunson, who scored four points and dished out two fine assists, helped the Wildcats craft a 25-15 lead at the midway point of the first half.

Picking up where it left off Wednesday at Providence, Marquette connected on 5-of-11 from beyond the arc to stay within striking distance. They narrowed the gap to 25-20 but the Wildcats' crisp offensive execution ââ'¬" they would convert 18-of-29 first half field goal attempts (.621) ââ'¬" allowed VU to take a 46-34 lead into the locker room at intermission.

Paschall's 11 points and 10 more points from Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree helped VU to its halftime margin. Markus Howard 11 points and four assists in 20 minutes paced the Golden Eagles.

"Dhamir was awesome," stated Wright. "He works so hard, is a great kid. It's hard to come into this program as a freshman big. I thought he did a great job offensively and defensively tonight."

Howard heated up again the early minutes of the second half, reeling off 12 points in the first six minutes of the period. But the efforts of Paschall and Brunson helped VU maintain a 64-50 lead with 13:37 to go in the second half.

Each time it appeared that the Wildcats had created a comfortable margin, however, Marquette closed the gap. Villanova took care of its business at the free throw line and closed out the win.

"This was a good step for us," stated Wright. "We had a long week after getting our butts kicked at Butler. This was a step in the right direction, as bad as that looked at times. They are hard to guard. Trying to prevent their 3's is really difficult. I know this sounds crazy but, holding them to 11 3's is pretty good."

This was the first of a two-game home stand for VU, which hosts No. 5/4 Xavier on Wednesday night at the Center.

The 2017-18 Villanova Basketball season is presented by KeyBank.