NEW YORK - The Marquette men's basketball team wasn't ready for the bright lights of the Big Apple.

And, like a struggling Broadway show, that meant the Golden Eagles' time on the stage was brief.

Fifth-seeded Golden Eagles never found their rhythm until late in the second half Thursday and fell to fourth-seeded Creighton, 74-63, in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Box score: Creighton 74, Marquette 63

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The Golden Eagles (19-12) suffered through a ragged start and fell behind, 51-38, with 11:27 remaining. But they mustered a spirited rally to get within 63-61 when Greg Elliott converted a three-point play with 3:04 on the clock.

The Golden Eagles defense then lost track of Ryan Hawkins, who drained a three-pointer and the Bluejays (21-10) pulled away to advance to face Providence in the semifinals on Friday.

Hawkins hit 4 three-pointers and scored 18 points. Leaving him open was emblematic of MU's defensive issues.

"He's as good as there is at making you pay when you're not where you need to be," MU coach Shaka Smart said "And I think our guys have done a phenomenal job all year long of supporting each other, being connected, moving on to the next play. And I think today, for whatever reason, we're in the Big East tournament, our guys really, really wanted to win.

"And some things didn't go our way early. I think we unfortunately allowed that to affect us a little bit. But as a team you have to find a way to stop those type of plays."

The defensive issues have become recurring theme for the Golden Eagles late in the season as they have lost six of 10 games. The Bluejays converted eight of their first nine shots to start the second half and finished 18 for 27 (66.7%) in the final 20 minutes.

"We'll watch the tape and we'll look at things we can do better," Smart said. "I tend to focus on, OK, are we connected? Are we playing for each other? Are we responding when things don't go our way?

"If we do those things we can be a really good defensive team. We've shown that all year. So we're going to focus on being better in those areas."

MU also had offensive issues in the first half, shooting 10 for 27 and committing 10 turnovers.

"I feel like, based on our play, it was kind of like nervousness," MU's Justin Lewis said. "Not wanting to mess up. Wanting to play a perfect game."

Darryl Morsell led MU with 18 points and Lewis added 17.

The Golden Eagles didn't look like they were clicking on offense until Morsell went on a personal 7-0 run that cut the deficit to 60-55 and breathed life into the MU fans in the building.

"We got lost in the fight more," Lewis said. "That's kind of why we went on a run. We let things go and that's what helped us on the run."

Hawkins was joined by Arthur Kaluma (14 points), Ryan Kalkbrenner (14) and Trey Alexander (11) as Creighton players to score in double figures.

"Those are four really good players," Smart said. "And you add (Alex) O'Connell, he had nine points. I thought Trey Alexander played well for Creighton, not only having double figures but having eight assists. Since (Ryan) Nembhard went out (with a wrist injury) he's really done a great job at the point guard spot. Just hurt us in different ways.

"I thought Kalkbrenner, in a strange way, he's 7-(foot-)1 but he's just kind of quicker to the ball on some of those plays. They shot one off the bottom of the backboard. He was just quicker, got it, was able to either score or draw a foul. He's played really, really well against us. Kaluma gives them a different element with him being back.

"But I think if you take away some of the plays they had in transition and then some of the drives we gave up from the top, I thought our guys did a nice job on defense. We just, too many times got beat on penetration, and in transition we lost them too many times."

Despite their struggles since a seven-game winning streak in January, the Golden Eagles are a lock to hear their names called for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

But if MU wants to fare better than it did in New York, there is plenty of work to do.

"We really wanted to win this tournament," Smart said. "We came up here to win. And that's why it really stings that we didn't.

"But you've got to give Creighton credit. And I really appreciate the fact that our guys have put us in position where we still have meaningful basketball to play even after losing today."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Creighton 74, Marquette 63: Golden Eagles out of Big East tournament