VILLANOVA, Pa. – After a three-game stretch in the friendly confines of Finneran Pavilion, Villanova heads back on to the road with a Monday matinee celebrating the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday at No. 11 Marquette (11-5 overall, 2-3 BIG EAST).
 
This matchup is set for 2:30 p.m. Monday at Fiserv Forum. The game will be televised nationally on the Fox network (Fox 29 in Philadelphia) with Jason Benetti and Bill Raftery courtside. Ryan Fannon and Whitey Rigsby will do the honors on the Villanova IHeart Sports Radio network.
 
Marquette has taken the last four meetings in the series, including both contests last season. The Wildcats lead the all-time series 27-16 and are 6-8 in games played in Milwaukee – where Monday's forecast high temperature is 0 degrees – since the Golden Eagles joined the BIG EAST ahead of the 2005-06 season.
 
Villanova hopes to build on its most explosive offensive performance of 2023-24. It downed DePaul by scoring a season-high 94 points on Friday night at the Finn. That game also featured a return to action for preseason first team All-BIG EAST guard Justin Moore (Fort Washington, Md.) after missing the previous five games due to a right knee sprain suffered at Kansas State on Dec. 5.
 
The Wildcats got a collection of key performances. One of those came from sophomore Mark Armstrong. The native of South Orange, N.J. established a new career high in points for the second straight outing by scoring 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting against the Blue Demons. Over his last two games, Armstrong has connected on 12-of-19 field goal attempts and averaged 14.5 points per game.
 
"He's improving a lot," noted Moore of one of his backcourt partners. "Just his decision-making, having the ball in his hands, getting into the paint to make plays for others is huge for us. Defensively, he's up in a guy every single time full court, applying pressure to our opponents. I think he's doing great."
 
Villanova outscored DePaul 29-11 among its reserves, highlighted by a 17-point outburst from sophomore Brendan Hausen. But it should not be overlooked that senior forward Lance Ware made an impact too, contributing a season-high eight points to go with six rebounds in 16:06 of activity.
 
"Lance, like a lot of our guys, is an unbelievably versatile player," stated Neptune. "He's a very intelligent guy. He can do a lot out there on the basketball court: defensively, offensively, great IQ, great passer, great rebounder and can guard anybody. Like a lot of our other guys, he's kind of a Swiss Army knife."
 
This begins a daunting stretch of BIG EAST play for the 'Cats, who will be on the road for three of their next four. The only contest on a homecourt in that stretch is next Saturday evening when reigning NCAA national champion and the likely No. 1 team in the nation next week, Connecticut, will be at the Wells Fargo Center.
 
As always, though, the focus inside the Davis Center is solely upon a Golden Eagles team with a versatile lineup that has made it a staple inside the Top 25 all season.
 
"For us, it's very simple," stated Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune of the clash at Marquette. "We don't try to reinvent the wheel. The takeaway is to try to get better going into our next game, defend and rebound at a high level, and try to play harder than Marquette."