Despite trailing by 12 with just over ten minutes left in the game, the Marquette men’s basketball team secured its first signature win in the Shaka Smart Era defeating the No. 10 Illinois Fighting Illini 67-66 Monday night at Fiserv Forum.
“The theme of this game was audacity,” Smart said. “Not a lot of people outside our locker room gave us much of a chance to win this game playing against a top-1o team, but the guys believed and stayed together.”
Marquette forced a total of 26 turnovers on the night to help propel the upset victory over the Illini who were without their star forward Kofi Cockburn, who was serving the last of his three-game suspension.