Monday afternoon's game against No. 17 Marquette is one Villanova is going to wish it had back.

The Wildcats had arguably their best offensive showing since returning from the Battle 4 Atlantis, excluding the two wins over DePaul. But they also had arguably (probably) their worst defensive performance of the entire season, and that, combined with an uncharacteristic number of turnovers, doomed them in an 87-74 loss that was much closer than the final score indicates.

Both teams came out scorching hot, with Marquette hitting nine of its first 12 shots and 'Nova connecting on seven of its first 11. But the teams were doing their damage in completely opposite ways.

The Wildcats were hot from the outside, and would finish the half hitting 9-of-18 three-point attempts. The Golden Eagles, on the other hand, were taking it to Villanova at the rim, scoring their first 14 points of the game in the paint. That would prove to be a sign of things to come.

The teams played within a possession of each other for the first 11 minutes of the game before Villanova landed the first big blow of the contest, an 8-0 run that opened a six-point lead for the 'Cats. But Marquette hit back with a significant counter punch, answering with a 12-0 run to flip Villanova's six-point edge into a six-point deficit.

The 'Cats were able to claw back within a point before a disastrous end-of-half sequence shifted momentum. Villanova was out in transition off a Brendan Hausen steal, but the sharpshooter declined to pull the trigger on an open three. As Marquette recovered and the advantage dissipated, Kyle Neptune elected to call timeout with 22 seconds left. Marquette defended the primary option on Villanova's play out of the timeout, leading Justin Moore to go into improvisation mode. Moore ended up forcing up a contested jumper that missed badly. The Wildcats could have lived with that, except the veteran guard failed to ensure that his shot attempt would be the last of the half, hoisting it with six seconds to play. This allowed Marquette to race the other way and convert a layup just ahead of the halftime buzzer.

Marquette took advantage, scoring the first seven points of the second half to open up a 10-point lead. Villanova once again clawed its way back into the game, tying things at 57 with just over 10 minutes to play. But Marquette responded with a 12-0 run that essentially ended the game. 'Nova would get no closer than six the rest of the way before Marquette tacked on to the deficit over the final two minutes to reach the final margin of 13.

You don't have to look long or hard to figure out what caused the 'Cats to fall. There were two glaring issues.

The one, obviously, was the defense. Marquette shot 62.5% in the first half (and was shooting 70%+ for much of the period) and 58.7% for the game. The Golden Eagles compiled an astonishing 60 points in the paint. Everything was way too easy for Marquette offensively and Villanova could not find an answer.

“They were excellent offensively tonight, we just could not get stops throughout the game," Neptune said. "There’s no other explanation.”

“They scored at the rim at an alarming rate,” Neptune added.

You're not going to win a whole lot of games with the opponent shooting that efficiently, and you're certainly not going to win when not only is your opponent shooting that well but it also manages 10 more shot attempts than you, which brings us to the second key issue.

The Wildcats committed 12 turnovers while forcing just three, and Marquette took advantage, building a staggering 15-2 edge in points off turnovers. Eight of those 12 turnovers came in the second half, with Marquette turning them into 11 points. 'Nova did not score a point off Marquette's lone second-half turnover. Interestingly, Marquette outscored Villanova by 10 in the second half, 44-34.

Poor defense and turnovers is a recipe for disaster, and perhaps what will sting the most about Monday's loss is that despite that dangerous combination of issues, it felt like Villanova had a pretty good opportunity to steal this game. The Wildcats were leading or within striking distance for much of the game, but couldn't sustain the former or overcome the latter due to the issues discussed above.

The offensive performance, outside the turnovers, was good enough for a win. 'Nova shot 47.2% overall and hit 14 threes at a 42.4% clip, earning a 21-point advantage from behind the arc. Mark Armstrong had a breakout game, scoring a career-high 24 points on 8-15 shooting, including 5-9 from three. Alas, it was all for naught, and coach Neptune summed it up well.

“It’s almost a waste," Neptune said of the offensive play. "It doesn’t really do anything for us if we can’t get stops. We know we have talented offensive players. But if you can’t get stops in this league, especially at the rim, it will go forgotten because it doesn’t really matter.”

It was a missed opportunity for Villanova, and one it may lament come March. But the team has no time to dwell on what-ifs, as next up is a date with No.1-ranked UConn on Saturday.