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Last season, Marquette guard Jajuan Johnson showed flashes of potential, but seldom more than flashes. Most of those came in the non-conference portion of the schedule before a difficult stretch in Big East play where his minutes and production both fluctuated and he was benched for one game due to poor practice performance.

Over the past eight games since returning from a neck injury, though, Johnson has undoubtedly turned a corner and become on of the most consistent and indispensable players on Marquette's roster.

On Wednesday night, he scored five critical points in the second overtime of Marquette's win over No. 20 Providence, finishing with 16 points in the 96-91 victory.

"One of the guys in the locker room that I made mention about was Jajuan Johnson," head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. "As you see his improvement and maturity, think back to where he was 12 months ago and where he is today — he's a totally different player. He's become a guy that we can depend on. He makes, for the most part, really good decisions."

In addition to his scoring, Johnson had seven rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals in 42 minutes. His five points in the second overtime came on a pair of free throws after making a steal and on a wide open three-pointer that he knocked down, oozing confidence as he let it go.

Last season, Johnson shot just 21.9% from beyond the arc, including 18.4% against conference foes. This season, Johnson is 17 for 42 from long range (40.5%) and has made 7 of 12 three-point attempts (58.3%) in Big East games.

Over his past eight games, Johnson is averaging 12.4 points on 54.3% shooting while adding more than four rebounds per game and playing well on defense. His improved play has earned him more playing time and increased confidence and praise from Wojciechowski.

"He's becoming a leader on our team and that's not something initially we anointed him, but because of his play and his consistency, that's what's happening," Wojciechowski said. "When those kinds of things happen for players I find that really exciting and I'm proud of him for that."

Bentil's huge night: No opposing player has ever entered the BMO Harris Bradley Center and put together the kind of performance Providence's Ben Bentil had on Wednesday night.

The 6-foot-9 sophomore forward scored 42 points on 11 for 29 shooting, including 6 for 13 from three-point range, knocked down 14 of 17 free throws and grabbed 12 rebounds over 46 minutes.

"Ben played great tonight," Providence head coach Ed Cooley said. "Still dealing with a sore foot. He had one of those games where the rim looked like an ocean. A lot of credit, but he can't do it by himself."

Bentil certainly did try.

After scoring 18 points in the first half, he added 13 more in the second, including four from the free-throw line as the Friars battled back from a late seven-point deficit. He added nine of his 11 overtime points after Friars point guard and preseason All-American Kris Dunn fouled out.

As the Big East's leading scorer (Dunn is second), Marquette knew Bentil was going to be the go-to guy with Providence trailing 81-76 with less than a minute left in overtime. That's right where the Friars went and Bentil hoisted a corner three, getting fouled by Golden Eagles freshman forward Henry Ellenson in the process, earning three shots.

"That No. 00 is one of the best players in the United States, don't leave him open," Wojciechowski said when asked what he told his team about defending Bentil. "If you happen to leave him open, don't foul him while he's shooting a three-point shot.

"He's a great player. What he's done from one year to the next should be an example to all college kids. His improvement from last year to this year is amazing. He's a heck of a player."

In the second overtime with Marquette leading by seven with less than a minute left, Bentil nailed back-to-back three's to make things interesting before missing a potential tying three.

“He's a great player and had a heck of a night tonight," Ellenson said. "He was hitting three's like crazy in the second half and OT tonight. Mad props to him. He was on fire, no doubt about it.”

Crashing the boards: The last time Marquette played Providence, the Golden Eagles collected just a pair of offensive rebounds. The coaching staff was worried about the Friars' transition attack, so the game plan involved bailing out after misses to get back on defense and limit easy buckets.

That plan wasn't the same one Marquette employed on Wednesday night.

One game removed from winning the rebounding battle at Xavier, Marquette, which had been one of the worst rebounding teams in the Big East, was in the winning side of the rebounding margin again versus Providence. The Golden Eagles pulled down 49 boards to the Friars' 46, including 19 offensive rebounds that led to 23 second-chance points.

"A couple weeks ago as we were learning our team, we'd had a hard time scoring at times," Wojciechowski said. "We've tried to make a bigger emphasis on going to the boards. I don't know how good an offensive rebounding team we'll be overall, but if we can get two or three points or two or three baskets on second shots that can be the difference between winning and losing. Certainly our guys attacked the offensive boards great tonight."

Providence's killer turnover: With 14.9 seconds left in regulation and the game tied, Providence had the ball with a chance to win the game. Cooley expected Marquette to stay in the 2-3 zone that had worked well over the course of the second half and drew up a play with the hope of exploiting the Golden Eagles' defense.

Cooley put the ball in the hands of Dunn, trusting him to run the clock down and initiate the offense with the clock running down — not too early, not too late. Providence got the look it wanted.

With the clock under five seconds, Dunn drove into the heart of Marquette's defense and the zone collapsed on him. That left Jalen Lindsey wide open along the three-point arc. Dunn fired off a pass to him, but it went wide and came in too hot, zipping out of bounds with 2.0 seconds left.

Lindsey was open, but he wasn't where Cooley hoped he would be. Cooley had wanted a back cut behind the zone, a play that there seemed to be plenty of room for.

"The two losses to these guys here is just devastating how we lost them both," Cooley said. "Had both games in our hands and we found a way to lose. That's on me as their coach and I hope I do a better job if we're fortunate to play them again. ...

"I thought we made fatal mistakes in our game. Game-changing plays, I mean, game-changing — fatal, literally, that word is important — it was 10 (mistakes) in that game that they capitalized on every single one of them."