VILLANOVA, Pa. – Another scintillating second half offensive display powered No. 5/4 Villanova past Marquette 96-64 Wednesday night at Finneran Pavilion. The Wildcats connected on 70 percent of their field goal attempts after intermission, scoring a season-best 56 points over the final 20 minutes.
 
Sophomore Jeremiah Robinson-Earl fell one shy of a career high with 27 points on 10-of-11 shooting from the field, including 5-of-5 from beyond the 3-point arc. Senior Collin Gillespie added 16 points and 11 assists.
 
The 96 total points were also a Villanova season high. The Wildcats are now 13-2 overall, 8-1 BIG EAST while the Golden Eagles fall to 9-11 overall, 5-9 BIG EAST. Freshman Dawson Garcia scored 28 points for Marquette, which opened a stretch of five straight on the road in this one.
 
This was the 11^th time in 15 games this season that Nova has scored 40 or more points in the second half.
 
"The shots were falling for us in the second half," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright. "It was just one of those nights. You're happy when you have them but you know you aren't going to have them every night. We'll take it.
 
"Defense is such a big part of what we do and it's probably where we're being affected the most by everything going on this season. I think we're behind where we'd like to be but we stepped up a little bit in the second half."
 
3-point baskets by Jermaine Samuels and Gillespie staked the Wildcats to an early 6-2 lead but Marquette responded with a 5-0 spurt of its own. A short jumper by Robinson-Earl gave Nova a 10-9 edge through 6:03 of the first half.
 
Robinson-Earl and Samuels fueled the Wildcats' offense, but Marquette stayed close as D.J. Carton heated up, scoring seven quick points midway through the period. For every Villanova bucket, Marquette seemingly had an answer. VU led 23-20 with 7:53 to play in the period.
 
Villanova was able to stretch the margin to 29-22 after a Gillespie steal led to a Justin Moore uncontested dunk at the other end. But Garcia drained a 3-pointer as part of spurt that closed the Golden Eagles gap to 31-27 at the final official timeout of the first half.
 
Over the final three minutes, Villanova slowly pushed its lead forward despite a field goal drought of nearly five minutes. In their final offensive possession of the half, Villanova set up Caleb Daniels for a 3-point attempt with five seconds left. The shot was off, but Nova chased the rebound down near mid-court and reversed the ball back to an open Daniels, who this time buried the triple.
"I just chased down the rebound out near the 3-point line and was surrounded by a couple of their guys," Gillespie said. "I saw Caleb was open and got it to him. I think it did give us a lift going into halftime."
 
At halftime, Villanova led 40-32. Part of the reason they held the advantage was a 16-5 edge in points off turnovers. The Wildcats forced eight Marquette miscues, though they did commit seven themselves.
 
Samuels led Villanova with 12 points in the first period.
 
A strong 2:30 to begin the second half helped Villanova build a 45-32 lead highlighted by a Robinson-Earl corner 3-pointer. Two 3-pointers from Justin Moore and a Robinson-Earl drive helped Villanova craft a 61-46 advantage. However, a pair of Theo John interior scores and two Garcia free throws shaved the deficit to 61-52 at the 11:33 mark. At that point, the Golden Eagles were 7-of-9 from the field in the second half.
 
But as Marquette seemed to be gaining traction on its comeback bid, Robinson-Earl drained 3-pointers on consecutive possessions. By the time Gillespie added another deep ball at the 8:08 mark of the second half, the Villanova lead was 73-54. The Wildcats weren't challenged the rest of the way.
 
"Jeremiah is so valuable to any team because he always does the little things to help you win – rebounding, screening, great team defensive player," noted Wright. "Now, he's really developing as an offensive player. He's really been working on his game. You don't expect this every night, but he's been more consistent every night he steps on the court.
 
"He never, ever has a poor game defensively or on the glass. Sometimes he doesn't get a lot of rebounds, but he keeps the opponents best rebounder from rebounding."
 
Villanova next heads to Omaha to meet No. 19 Creighton Saturday afternoon at CHI Health Center. Tipoff is set for just after 5 p.m. eastern time on the Fox broadcast network (Fox 29 in Philadelphia) and 95.7 Ben FM in the Delaware Valley.