Villanova entered Friday night with a golden opportunity. After losing three of four following an upset of No. 9 UConn, the Wildcats travelled to No. 10 Marquette with a chance to earn a potentially season-saving win. They were unable to take advantage of that opportunity, falling to the Golden Eagles 87-74.

While the game was relatively close for the most part, it never truly felt like Villanova was threatening. The Wildcats led for a total of 1:22, which came in the game’s first four minutes.

“A lot of credit goes to Marquette,” Kyle Neptune said. “They had a great game plan. They came out, they executed, played extremely hard, forced us into turnovers, got out in transition. I thought they did everything they wanted to do. Hats off to those guys.”

The ‘Cats kept things within two or three possessions for much of the first half, but a sequence that felt emblematic of the season in the period’s final 10 seconds helped Marquette steal some momentum and take a 10-point lead into the break.

Possessing the ball and trailing by nine, Villanova drew up arguably the best plays its run all year for a Tyler Perkins layup to cut the deficit to seven with eight seconds left. But, in a scene that was far too common Friday night (and all season really), the Wildcats lost a three-point shooter on the other end, allowing Marquette to hit a buzzer-beating three and push the lead back to 10 at the break. Instead of heading into half feeling good about the final play and a manageable seven-point deficit, the ‘Cats were down double digits and ha the wind taken out of their sails.

The ’Cats pulled within six several times in the second half, but every time Marquette had an answer. There were two sequences that epitomized the second half for ‘Nova.

Trailing by six with about 14 minutes left, Villanova had the ball with the chance to cut the deficit to three or four. Instead, it turned the ball over, leading to a Marquette layup and an eight-point deficit.

A few minutes later, with 9:11 remaining, Villanova used a 7-1 run to cut a 12-point deficit to six. This stretch was the most menacing one the Wildcats produced all night, and it looked like it was about to get extended when Jordan Longino got a steal and was out on the fast break. ‘Nova looked certain to trim the deficit to just four. Instead, Longino’s layup attempt was blocked, Villanova gave up an offensive rebound after nearly getting a stop on the ensuing possession and promptly gave up a second-chance three that pushed Marquette’s lead back to nine. It was a truly backbreaking sequence for the ‘Cats, and indeed they would get no closer than seven the rest of the way.

There were a couple of key areas in the loss. The biggest was turnovers. Villanova committed 13 turnovers leading to 16 Marquette points. Marquette committed just six turnovers, which ‘Nova converted into just two points. Minus-seven in turnovers and minus-14 in points off turnovers isn’t going to get it done, especially on the road against a top 10 opponent.

Second, Villanova got bullied in the paint. Marquette won points in the paint 38-20 and was a scorching 19-30 (63 percent) on two-point attempts. The defense overall wasn’t good enough, as evidenced by the 87 points Villanova gave up, and the three-point defense was certainly lacking, but it was really the close-range that doomed ‘Nova, combined with the turnovers.

Villanova now gets a week off before hosting Creighton on Feb. 1.