Villanova’s six-game winning streak came to an end Wednesday night as the Wildcats fell to Marquette 57-54.

As the final score indicates, the game was a typical Big East battle with both teams delivering blows only to see the opponent respond.

Marquette opened the scoring with a Justin Lewis 3, something that would prove to be a sign of things to come. Villanova got off to a decent start, hitting its first two shots to take a 5-3 lead, but would then hit just two of its next 11 shots over the next seven minutes. Marquette was able to take advantage of the Villanova shooting struggles and built a six-point lead.

An Eric Dixon layup stopped the bleeding for ‘Nova, who then got to work responding and delivering a blow of their own. Marquette was able to parry the Wildcats’ punches for a few minutes, keeping the lead at five despite ‘Nova pulling within one possession a couple of times. Finally, Villanova was able to break through.

The ‘Cats ripped off a 9-0 run over three minutes to take a four-point lead as it was Marquette’s turn to suffer through a drought. However, the Golden Eagles would score the last five points of the half to take a one-point lead into the break.

The first five minutes of the second half played out similarly, with the teams playing within a possession of each other. But then Marquette was struck with another drought, this one lasting 3:52, and the ‘Cats would take advantage, ripping off a 12-0 run to take a nine-point lead with 10:53 to play.

The Finn was rocking and the ‘Cats seemed to have all the momentum. It had the feel of so many other games over the past decade where Villanova finds that extra gear and cruises to victory.

Of course, Marquette had other ideas. Back-to-back 3s cut the lead to three in the blink of an eye, setting the stage for a fight over the last eight minutes. The Wildcats were able to push the lead back to six several times, but would again suffer through an extended drought, this one lasting five minutes. After taking that nine-point lead, ‘Nova would see Marquette ultimately go on a 14-6 run to pull within one with 3:45 to go.

Collin Gillespie answered with a layup and was fouled, hitting the free throw to restore the ‘Nova advantage to four with 2:19 to play. Those would prove to be the final points ‘Nova would score. Meanwhile, Lewis delivered consecutive layups to tie the game with just over a minute to go. Villanova would come up empty on the ensuing possession and then Lewis struck again, nailing a 3 from the top of the key after nearly having the ball stolen, to put the Golden Eagles up 3 with just 11 seconds left. Justin Moore missed a 3 on the next possession, the rebound ended up in the backcourt where it was chased down by Gillespie, and his desperation heave wouldn’t go, leaving Villanova with a disappointing result.

“Sometimes it’s your decision making, sometimes it’s a tough break,” Jay Wright said of the offensive struggles down the stretch. “I think there was both, we were missing layups and they did a good job too. So, it’s never one thing. I’d say some tough shots we normally make, I think we made some poor decisions and I think they really cranked up the defense when they got down instead of folding.”

Adding to the frustration is the fact that almost everything played out the way Villanova would have liked going into the game. The ‘Cats again dominated the paint (30-16) and won the rebounding battle 37-28. They won second-chance points (8-6) and points off turnovers (14-10). And they again got the better of things from 2-point range, hitting 16-34 while limiting Marquette to just 8-22. Finally, the game was played at a pace that overwhelmingly favored Villanova. This was Marquette’s first win this season when scoring fewer than 60 points and just its third win when scoring fewer than 70. If you were told all of these numbers before the game, you would have assumed that Villanova won comfortably.

There was just one problem: the 3-point line. We mentioned in the game preview that the line could be a factor, and it turned out to be the factor. Villanova was absolutely dominated from beyond the arc, as Marquette drained 13 3’s. The Golden Eagles shot 10% better than their season average and Villanova struggled to just 25% from deep. The result was a 21-point advantage for Marquette in a game it won by three.

“They’re a good shooting team,” Wright said. “Justin Lewis came out right from the get-go and drilled a 3 first shot of the game. We know Elliott’s coming in hitting 3s, Morsell hit some big ones, Joplin had a big one, comes off the bench, plays four minutes, drills a big 3. So, they hit a lot of 3s, they hit a lot of timely 3s, the last one being the most timely. I thought every time we started to separate, they hit some 3s to get it back close and we gotta give them credit for that.”

It was no doubt a frustrating result. The team will look to shake it off and get back on track on Saturday when it travels to D.C. to take on Georgetown.