Valpo Pushes Marquette to Brink in Overtime Road Setback
The Valparaiso University men’s basketball team led for 28 minutes on Tuesday at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, but it was host Marquette that held the upper hand when the overtime clock reached all zeros, as the Beacons fell 75-72 while giving a Big East opponent all it could handle. Valpo nearly secured a signature win for the program, but one key player exited due to cramping and two other starters fouled out as the Brown & Gold played short handed down the stretch.
How It Happened
- Freshman JT Pettigrew (Lisle, Ill. / Bolingbrook) had a pair of early hoops, but Marquette held a 6-4 lead at the first media timeout.
- Junior Mark Brown Jr. (South Phoenix, Ariz. / Bella Vista Prep [Snow College]) knocked down a 3 at the 15:06 mark, slimming the Marquette lead to one. Pettigrew turned a traditional 3-point play to get it back down to two at 12-10 at the under-12 media timeout.
- The Beacons forced 14 straight Marquette misses from the field during a stretch that saw Valpo take the lead on a go-ahead 3 by Isaiah Barnes (Chicago, Ill. / Simeon Career Academy [Tulsa/Michigan]) with 8:59 left in the first half, putting Valpo up 15-14, the first lead of the game for the guests.
- After a made dunk with 13:43 left in the first half, the Golden Eagles did not make another shot from the field until 4:46 left in the half, ending a seven-minute scoreless drought and a field-goal drought of nine minutes.
- Pettigrew responded to Marquette’s drought-ending score with a bucket to put Valpo back in front and lift his first-half point total to nine, but Marquette drilled a 3 at the 3:33 mark of the first half to regain the lead at 19-17.
- Senior Owen Dease (Evansville, Ind. / Evansville Reitz [Texas A&M Corpus Christi]) drained a 3 to put Valpo back in front at the 2:59 mark of the first half, then freshman Rakim Chaney (Rockford, Ill. / Rockford Auburn [212 Sports Academy]) swished one in from distance to double the lead to six at 25-19. Dease hit two free throws after he was fouled in the final second of the half, and Valpo owned a 27-23 lead at the break.
- Valpo enlarged the lead to seven thanks to a 6-0 run early in the second half, which featured a dunk by Shon Tupuola (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg [Saint Mary of-the-Woods]).
- The hosts battled back to tie the game, but the Beacons responded with a five-point burst and eventually went up 48-42 when Chaney swished a 3 with 12:03 to go. Brody Whitaker (Greencastle, Ind. / Greencastle [University of Indianapolis / Marian]) hit one from distance to stretch the lead to seven with 10:11 to go. Valpo’s lead was six at the under-8 media timeout.
- Valpo called timeout with 4:16 left in regulation, clinging to a 62-59 advantage. Chaney hit a massive triple on the first possession out of that timeout to double the lead to six with 3:40 left.
- Marquette scored the final six points of regulation to send the game to overtime, even at 65.
- Whitaker scored the first basket of the extra session to put Valpo ahead, then the Beacons went up 70-69 when Dease drained a 3 with 2:01 left in OT.
- All of the scoring by both teams in the final two minutes of OT came at the free-throw line, with Marquette making six free throws to Valpo’s two.
- Valpo played shorthanded at the end of the game as Pettigrew did not play the final 3:18 of regulation or in overtime due to cramping, Chaney fouled out with 1:30 left in regulation and Whitaker fouled out with 1:21 left in overtime.
Inside the Game
- This marked Valpo’s first overtime game since beating Indiana State 98-95 on Jan. 8, 2025 and first OT loss since Dec. 29, 2024 at Bradley.
- This was the closest Valpo came to beating a team from the Big East Conference since a three-point loss to Marquette on Jan. 27, 2006 (L 65-62) and the closest Valpo came to a road win over the Big East in over a quarter of a century.
- This was the closest Valpo came to a road win over Marquette since an 80-79 loss on Dec. 1, 1965.
- This was the closest Valpo came to beating a member of the Big East, Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12 or PAC-12 since beating Alabama 68-60 on Nov. 21, 2016 and the closest Valpo came to winning on the road against a member of those conferences since Nov. 24, 2015 at Oregon State.
- Valpo was hoping to snap a road losing streak against Marquette that reached 10 and was seeking the program’s first win at Marquette since 1964.
- Valpo snapped a seven-game winning streak in one-possession games, incurring its first loss by three points or fewer since Feb. 3, 2024 vs. Evansville (L 63-62).
- Valpo has dropped six of its last seven overtime games dating back to 2022.
- This was the closest any Missouri Valley Conference team has come to beating a Big East opponent since Loyola Chicago’s 68-64 win over DePaul on Dec. 4, 2021.
- Dease led the team in scoring for the second straight contest with 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting and 5-of-5 at the free-throw line. He also pulled down six rebounds, his season high.
- Dease has scored 17 or more in each of his last two games and has tallied nine points or more in five straight including four of those in double figures.
- Pettigrew racked up 16 points and eight rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting. He owned a team-best plus-minus of +13 before exiting for good with cramping. The 16 points marked a season high for the freshman.
- Chaney scored 13 points before fouling out in 20 minutes of play. He did so on an efficient 5-of-7 shooting and 3-of-5 from 3. He has scored in double figures in six of the team’s eight games this season.
- Pettigrew and Tupuola shared the team lead with eight rebounds apiece. Tupuola had seven or more for the seventh straight game.
- The charity stripe played a key role in the outcome, as Marquette outscored Valpo at the line 27-8 and had 32 attempts to Valpo’s 12. This was the first time Valpo had 20 fewer attempts than its opponent since back-to-back games last season at Murray State and at Belmont. This was the first time Valpo had 19+ fewer made free throws than the opponent since Nov. 27, 2022 vs. James Madison.
- Taking care of the ball had been a strength of Valpo’s throughout the season, but Tuesday proved to be the rare exception as the Beacons committed a season-high 21 turnovers and were outscored 20-7 in points off turnovers and 33-3 in fastbreak points. The 21 turnovers marked the team’s most during the Roger Powell Jr. Era and most in any game since 21 on Dec. 10, 2022 at Ole Miss.
- Valpo shot 45.2 percent while holding Marquette to 35 percent from the floor. The Golden Eagles shot just 28.6 percent from 3.
- Valpo held Marquette to just 65 points in the regulation 40 minutes, the sixth time in eight games this season that the Beacons have limited an opponent to 65 points or fewer in regulation.
Up Next
Valpo (5-3) will host CCSJ on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the ARC, the final game before some time off for final exams.