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Washington — When Marquette hit the practice court on Friday for the first time since its loss to Seton Hall, it looked more like a college basketball practice than a pick-up session at the Y. That's the Golden Eagles coaches and players were back in their team-branded gear instead of the white T-shirts and plain shorts they had been wearing since before Thanksgiving.

"I thought the white T-shirts served their purpose and we worked hard in those," freshman forward Henry Ellenson said. "He gave us back our practice gear and he said, 'Grow up, it's time to be men. No more gimmicks, it's time to do work.' That's something we've got to do."

The switch to practicing in white T-shirts occurred after Marquette suffered an 89-61 home loss to Iowa on Nov. 19. When the Golden Eagles returned to practice two days later, they did it in the historic Marquette gymnasium, better known as the "Old Gym," and did so without their practice gear, which Wojciechowski said they hadn't earned.

Marquette's coaches and players alike wore the matching plain ensemble in Brooklyn at the Legends Classic, where they knocked off LSU and Arizona State on back-to-back nights to claim the crown. Wojciechowski said after the LSU game that he would stick with what was working, which he did as Marquette won its next seven games while wearing the white T-shirts and going shirts vs. skins at practice.

Wednesday's loss to Seton Hall in the Big East opener as well as the turning of the calendar to 2016 brought a natural time to switch things back.

"It's time to play basketball," sophomore Sandy Cohen said. "It's not about what we practice in, it's about how we come out and play in the game."

While Wojciechowski called it a gimmick to his players on Friday, both Ellenson and Cohen said the team took the stripped down practice wardrobe seriously.

"We definitely bought into it," Cohen said. "It definitely motivated us and more than anything it was a great analogy to show that we really haven't done anything as a team and we need to work every day. We use the analogy 'put money in the bank' because we're poor right now. The white T-shirts and the shorts that was a great analogy. We bought into it."

Changing things up: On most nights, redshirt sophomore Duane Wilson and junior Jajuan Johnson are the first players off the bench for Marquette. On Saturday, freshman center Matt Heldt joined Wilson at the scorer's table in the first few minutes of the game.

Heldt, who had played in eight games for a total of 42 minutes, subbed in with Wilson and Johnson at the under-16 media timeout with 14:11 remaining in the first half. It was the earliest he had entered a game this season and did so as Fischer's replacement.

"Matt's practiced well," Wojciechowski said. "I thought Luke looked a little tired to start the game, so we wanted to get a fresh body in. We're looking for contributions from everyone. Matt's a good player and he's been practicing better and better over the past couple weeks."

Fischer's rest didn't last long as he replaced Heldt after just 2 minutes, 3 seconds. Heldt was quiet in those minutes, collecting one rebound.

Wojciechowski made another change in the second half, but it had nothing to do with the lineup. With Georgetown seemingly scoring at will and leading by double digits, he instructed his team to switch from man defense to zone. The Golden Eagles employed a high and wide 2-3 zone, aimed at providing pressure on the Hoyas' ball-handlers soon after they crossed half court.

Outside of a steal by Wilson, which he was unable to convert into points at the other end, the zone wasn't much of a success. The Golden Eagles looked rusty and didn't move well and the Hoyas passed the ball quickly around to get good looks. After using the zone for a few minutes, Marquette returned to man-to-man.

"We've done a pretty good job with our man defense and that would be our preference, although we'll have to play some zone," Wojciechowski said. "We've worked on it, although it wasn't very good today."

Wojciechowski shuffled his lineup a bit in the second half, opting to use a smaller unit early in the second half. Henry Ellenson and Luke Fischer weren't scoring consistently in the paint and their presence on the court together meant Georgetown was hunkering down in the paint to prevent them from having more opportunities.

"Going small allowed us to spread the floor a little bit more and open up driving lanes," Wojciechowski said. "We wanted to attack the basket."

About four minutes into the second half, Wojciechowski deployed the smaller lineup by subbing Wally Ellenson in for Fischer. Marquette whittled the lead down from 16 to 12 over the next two-plus minutes and Wojciechowski then swapped Fischer for Henry Ellenson. Less than a minute later, Marquette was within eight after freshman point guard Traci Carter scored in the lane and Cohen converted a pair of free throws after being fouled on a drive.

Carter's field goal was Marquette's last for more than eight minuted. During most of that stretch, Wojciechowski went back to using Henry Ellenson and Fischer together.

"The strength of our team throughout the year has been our big guys," Wojciechowski said, explaining why he switched out of the smaller lineup. "They've been really efficient and tonight they weren't."

Senior finishes what younger players started: Like Marquette, Georgetown leans heavily on its freshmen and sophomore. Through most of the game, the players shouldering the scoring load were all underclassmen.

Freshman Marcus Derrickson led the Hoyas with 16 points and freshman center Jessie Govan added 11 points and four blocks off the bench. When it comes to sophomores, Isaac Copeland had 11 points and L.J. Peak was 5 for 5 off the bench for 10 points.

When Georgetown needed to put the game away, though, it turned to senior D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera. The veteran guard dished out eight assists on the night and scored 12 of his 15 points in the final 2:09 of the game.

"D’Vauntes had eight assists today, D’Vauntes is getting everybody else involved, but when it comes time to win the game D’Vauntes does what he has to do," head coach John Thompson III said. "That’s a senior, that’s someone that understands, there’s a lid on the basket, everything is stagnant, even when we get the looks that we want they’re not going in and he just took over at the end, in the right kind of way.

Tidbits: Marquette had just 10 assists on Saturday, marking the third time the Golden Eagles had that few in a game — they also had 10 assists against Arizona State and Seton Hall.

"I feel like we moved the ball a lot today, it's just we didn't hit shots," Wilson said. "Sometimes that's the way it goes. It was a tough lid on the rim tonight. That's why we've got to keep on working. We missed a lot of shots inside the paint that were assists." ...

After doing a good job of limiting opposing teams' free-throw opportunities, Marquette has had trouble keeping its Big East foes off the line. Seton Hall went 24 for 28 (85.7%) on Wednesday and Georgetown went 22 for 23 (95.7%) on Saturday. Marquette has gotten to the line 50 times over the past two games, making 35 (70%).