Saturday’s trip to Milwaukee was a disappointing one for Villanova as the Wildcats turned in an unsteady performance and missed an opportunity for a big road win in the conference.

There’s really no way around it, the first half was an utter disaster. Markus Howard got off to a hot start with 17 quick points, and he and Koby McEwen outscored Villanova by themselves in the half. The defensive effort from the Kansas and Xavier games was nowhere to be found. Marquette shot 55.6 percent, including 12-18 from two-point range. Remember, the Golden Eagles entered the game shooting just 45.9 percent from inside the arc.

Early fouls, some legitimate some questionable, played a major role in the first half, as did Villanova’s inability to get to the line themselves, which we discussed earlier this week. The result was Saddiq Bey picking up three fouls and playing only five first-half minutes and Marquette getting 13 free throws to Villanova’s two. The Golden Eagles built up a 12-point advantage from the charity stripe.

Marquette deserves some credit for its defensive effort in the first half, as it was a grind for ‘Nova offensively. Still, the ‘Cats were generating more than enough good looks, and just weren’t knocking them down.

We highlighted four keys in our game preview: the free-throw line, the three-point line, rebounding, and turnovers. Not surprisingly based on the halftime score, ‘Nova was soundly beaten in three of the four. We already mentioned the 12-point advantage from the charity stripe for Marquette, and the Golden Eagles also outrebounded ‘Nova 18-13 and committed five turnovers to Villanova’s eight. The ‘Cats did have a nine-point edge from beyond the arc, but their inefficiency (33.3 percent) and Marquette’s hot play inside the arc allowed the Golden Eagles to easily offset that single Villanova advantage.

The result was a 19-point Marquette lead, 46-29.

The second half was much better for Villanova defensively, and the Wildcats were able to close within eight points with just under eight minutes to go. Unfortunately, the early deficit was too much to overcome when combined with cold shooting from ‘Nova, and that was as close as the ‘Cats would get before falling 71-60.

Ultimately, Villanova was done in by three things on Saturday afternoon: poor shooting, the free-throw disparity, and only playing defense for a half.

The Wildcats shot 35.8 percent from the field and just 24.3 percent from beyond the arc. When they were making their second-half push, they had several opportunities to really put the pressure on Marquette but just couldn’t knock down good looks.

After the hot shooting in the first half for Marquette, the Golden Eagles finished the game at just 37 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from three. If Villanova plays that type of defense for the full 40 minutes, we may be having a completely different conversation right now.

The final free-throw disparity is a little bit skewed by late fouls given by Villanova as they tried to extend the game, but it was substantial even before that. Marquette finished 26-30 from the line, while ‘Nova was just 3-5. We try not to be in the blame officials crowd, but it’s fair to come away feeling like this game was officiated somewhat inconsistently. For long stretches, it felt like loose ball fouls were being called only at one end of the floor, and at with just over three minutes left Marquette had only been called for 10 fouls. Furthermore, Howard was getting the benefit of the doubt on a lot of calls, and when he is going to be officiated like that it’s virtually impossible to guard him and to compete with Marquette. There was also one curious play in the second half where Jermaine Samuels was walloped and sent to the floor on a drive with no call, but then the officials stopped the game on the ensuing possession and forced Samuels to head to the bench to get checked out by trainers. It’s hard to understand how they didn’t see a foul but felt he got hit hard enough to need to be taken out of the game.

Even with the officiating, the bottom line is Marquette played better than Villanova. The Wildcats can’t get away with only playing 20 minutes of defense, and when combined with the shooting struggles it’s tough to win games.

The performance was disappointing, but it will be a learning experience for the Wildcats. Several key contributors got their first taste of going on the road in the Big East and found out what it’s like to do so wearing a Villanova uniform where you are going to get every team’s best shot and the crowd will be fired up. The importance of playing a full 40 minutes and a commitment on the defensive end should be easy takeaways for the team, and they need to find a way to get to the free-throw line.

Saturday produced a disappointing result and was certainly a missed opportunity, but lessons should be learned and it should help the ‘Cats be better down the road.

The Wildcats will look to get back on track on Tuesday when they travel to Creighton.