Sandy Cohen III and Henry Ellenson celebrate an upset victory over No. 8 Providence Tuesday night. Credit: Getty Images

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Providence, R.I. — If Marquette was going to steal a win at No. 8 Providence, the Golden Eagles were going to have to bow up on defense and stop one of the country's premier players, Friars point guard Kris Dunn, on the final play of the game in a hostile environment.

With 24 seconds left on both the game clock and shot clock, the Friars called timeout trailing by a point. Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski debated whether his team should stay in its 2-3 zone or switch back to man, ultimately opting to stick with the zone that had worked well to that point.

The ball swung around the perimeter, eventually finding its way to Dunn. Marquette guards Duane Wilson and Haanif Cheatham converged on him, so he drove to his right when freshman forward Henry Ellenson collapsed on him as well.

Dunn fired up a shot, but it didn't get far. Ellenson, with his right arm outstretched, swatted the ball away then collected it, took a dribble and ran toward the bench to celebrate Marquette's 65-64 victory Tuesday night at the Dunkin' Donuts Center.

"I knew they waited awhile to get their last shot off, they dribbled a lot of time off and so I knew they had to get a shot up there at the end," said Ellenson, who had 13 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. "I just recognized the time and situation to get over there and make a play."

That play was one of many the Golden Eagles (11-4, 1-2 Big East) made down the stretch, but it took a gritty performance to get to that point.

Marquette opened up a 12-point lead in the first half but committed 12 of its 19 turnovers, which allowed Providence to stay in the game. Led by Dunn, who finished with 20 points, seven assists, five steals, five rebounds but also seven turnovers, the Friars got over their cold start and pulled within six, 30-24, at halftime.

After Marquette pushed the lead back to eight at 42-34, Providence (14-2, 2-1) made its big run. The Friars outscored the Golden Eagles, 24-8, over the next 8 minutes 20 seconds, including 16 points — and 14 straight at one point — from sophomore forward Ben Bentil, who finished with a game-high 28.

"He's just hard to tame," Wilson said of Bentil. "Probably the most improved player in the Big East, by far."

While Bentil was powering Providence to a 58-50 lead, Marquette struggled. The Golden Eagles committed four turnovers during the Friars' run and shot just 2 for 10.

With 6:33 left and trailing by eight, Marquette didn't pack it in. Instead, the Golden Eagles refocused on attacking the hoop since Providence was in the bonus and went on an 8-0 run to tie the game in less than three minutes. The first six of those points came at the free-throw line, where Marquette went 19 for 25 on the night.

"Once we'd seen they were in the bonus, Coach Wojo told us in the huddle, 'Keep attacking, keep attacking. Don't take no bad shots, don't take no treys, just get to the rim,'" said Cheatham, who scored a team-high 16 points.

With just over a minute left, though, Marquette was back down by three, 64-61. Ellenson then fired a perfect pass from the center of Providence's zone down to junior center Luke Fischer for a dunk. At the other end, Fischer, who had four fouls, strongly contested a Bentil layup while staying vertical and Wilson came down with the rebound.

Wilson then sped up the court and tried to drive, but he got stopped and picked up his dribble. After passing to Fischer and getting the ball back, Wilson turned the corner past his defender, rose up against Friars forward Rodney Bullock and got a tough layup to fall while hanging in the air to put Marquette ahead for good at 65-64.

"The only thing that's really going through my mind is just get to the paint and if they converge look for the kick," Wilson said. "But they didn't converge and one thing we've been focusing on is finishing through contact and I feel like that's what I did."

Ellenson's block on the next play put an exclamation point on Marquette's biggest win in years. Tuesday's victory was the Golden Eagles' first over a top-10 team since it beat No. 5 Miami in the 2013 NCAA Tournament and first as an unranked team since winning at No. 4 Louisville on Jan. 31, 2004.

"We feel really fortunate to win," Wojciechowski said. "I thought our guys showed incredible toughness, poise, fight and we're very proud to beat an outstanding program."

The victory also came on the heels of Marquette's most frustrating stretch, double-digit losses to Seton Hall and Georgetown to open Big East play. Those losses, and the way the Golden Eagles performed in them, prompted Wojciechowski to call a team meeting after the Georgetown loss Saturday that turned into something more.

"The meeting was just Coach getting on us and it really turned into the players talking more than the coaches," Wilson said. "Everybody, me, Henry, Haanif, a lot of players on the team stepped up and said how they felt and the things that we needed to do and the things that we needed to get rid of that we were doing in the last two games.

"And I feel like that's what we did; we played together as a team and we were tough."