Tyler Kolek's 15 assists help get Marquette's offense into gear against Georgetown

The Marquette men’s basketball team is capable of making some beautiful music on offense, and point guard Tyler Kolek is the exacting conductor of that multi-piece orchestra.

The 6-foot-3, ball-handling wizard pulled the strings perfectly on Saturday afternoon, cueing up 15 assists without turning the ball over in the Golden Eagles’ 95-73 victory over Georgetown at Fiserv Forum.

Box score: Marquette 95, Georgetown 73

More:How Olivier-Maxence Prosper has found the right balance on offense for Marquette this season

More:David Joplin learning to be more than a shooter for Marquette

Over his last four games, Kolek has 39 assists against three turnovers. That gaudy ratio is a big reason why MU (13-4, 5-1 Big East) is playing at such a high level.

“It’s just my empowerment from the coaches,” Kolek said. “To have an assist, guys got to make shots. So they’ve done a great job of helping me help them."

Marquette’s offense clicks into gear in second half

It took a while for MU to get perfectly in synch against the reeling Hoyas (5-12, 0-6), who have lost a Big East record 26 straight regular-season conference games.

Georgetown led, 36-34, at halftime with the Golden Eagles clanging 12 of their 14 three-point shots.

But with Kolek pushing the pace, MU made its first four attempts of the second half, including 3 three-pointers. It was just like the Golden Eagles’ two previous games at Villanova and St. John’s, when MU turned on the switch at the break.

“We’ve been making good adjustments at halftime,” Kolek said. “Not really schematically. But just locking into each other and making those eyeball contracts of what we got to do and really sit down and guard.

“That’s the biggest difference in the past three halves that we played, second halves we’ve just been guarding those guys and that’s what we got to do for a full 40. We got to put it together.”

The Hoyas hung around a bit before the Golden Eagles broke their spirit with a 14-0 run for a 73-55 lead with 8:40 left.

MU kept pouring it on, with the advantage cresting at 95-67 on a dunk by little-used reserve Keeyan Itejere.

“We many, many times as a team have talked about the advantages that we have as a group, Marquette men’s basketball,” MU head coach Shaka Smart said. “That we can bring to the court any time we take the floor. And we can press those advantages.

“When that’s at the front of our mind, we’re really good and our guys go do some great things. When we get away from that, if we get down about certain things or we get our minds clouded by certain things, then we’re not as good.

“We’re in the category of a whole lot of other people, we’re not that talented that we can just be any kind of way. We’ve got to be our way.”

Kolek just short of Marquette’s single-game assist mark

Kolek took a seat with just over four minutes remaining, so he fell two assists shy of Tony Miller’s program record of 17 set against Memphis on March 4, 1995.

Someone on the Golden Eagles’ bench let Kolek know of that fact as soon as he exited the game, but he didn't press the coaching staff to go back in and challenge the mark.

“I can’t focus on individual stats,” Kolek said. “Obviously it’s nice to have your name in the record books. But I’m just focused on winning the game and that’s what we did.”

Kolek also contributed seven points, four steals and three rebounds.

“He’s doing a good job,” Smart said. “Teams are playing him different ways, he’s doing a good job reading the defense.

“I still would love to see him shoot the ball more. Because he’s a good shooter. I can promise you this, there’s going to be teams that play him, when he’s got the ball, because he’s spraying the ball around so well, to make him shoot. Because he’s just so good at finding teammates.

“He just puts a lot of time in. A lot of work in. He’s very diligent about watching tape. About working on the different components of his offensive game. And you can see that out there. He looks very prepared. He looks like he knows what he’s doing and knows what the other team is going to do, and then is ready to respond.”

Marquette’s offense features well-balanced scoring

Thanks to Kolek’s passing, MU’s scoring was evenly distributed.

Oso Ighodaro scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half. Kam Jones scored 15 of his team-high 17 after the break.

“Everybody’s contributing,” Kolek said. “It’s a different guy every night. We share the ball and got a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things.”

Freshman Chase Ross showed why he could be a force for MU in the coming seasons, knocking down 2 three-pointers and throwing down a highlight dunk.

MU’s starting unit of Kolek, Ighodaro, Jones, Stevie Mitchell and Olivier-Maxence Prosper is one of the most potent five-man units in the country.

“On offense,” Kolek cautioned. “On defense, I’d say we need to improve a little bit better. That’s something we focus on.

“That starting group, we’re always coming into those first medias (timeouts) at 15-13. Can’t complain that we’re scoring a lot. We’re feeling good about ourselves if we’re scoring that many points in a four-minute run. But we got to get better on the defensive end.

“Just playing together every day. Everybody on that starting lineup, this is their second year in this offense and second year playing together. So I think that really helps and being connected with each other. We share the ball and we make shots.”

But Ross and fellow freshmen Ben Gold and Sean Jones all had positive moments off the bench alongside microwave scorer David Joplin.

“The goal of any team is for the whole be greater than the sum of its parts,” Smart said. “We were picked ninth (in the Big East) this year. Because the coaches in our league, the media that follows our league, felt like we had ninth-place parts.

“And I’m included in that. The players, the program, head coach. When as a group, you’re able to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts, eventually it reflects on the parts.

“So now, people say, 'wow, look at Oso, look at O-Max, look what Tyler’s doing.' Yeah, because those guys are connected and playing together. But that is not something you take for granted or you put a check in the box. It’s something you have to work on every day.

“Phil Jackson said ‘Teamwork is a ephemeral thing, it’s as ethereal as love disappearing with the latest insult.’ It’s a mouthful, but he was talking about his Lakers team. And so we’ve got to work on it every day and continue to press our advantages.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tyler Kolek's 15 assists help Marquette in 95-73 win over Georgetown