Frank Franklin Ii / AP

Marquette's Lazar Hayward (32) looks to pass away from Villanova's Corey Fisher (10) during the first half of their Big East quarterfinal Thursday.

Marquette appeared to be on the way to a rare easy win as it took a 65-57 lead on Johnson-Odom’s last 3 with 4:54 to go.

The Wildcats turned on the defensive pressure with midcourt traps and wiped out that lead in 1:20 by forcing three straight turnovers to make it 65-all on a layup by Fisher with 3:34 to play.

Stokes hit a 3 to tie it at 70 with 2:22 to go. Hayward then hit a 3 from beyond the NBA line to break the final tie.

“When I had that 3 I had a little space and I seen he had his hands down. I just shot it and it was a rhythm shot,” said Hayward, who was 2 of 3 from beyond the arc. “Coach never gets mad if we shoot rhythm 3s. It went in and it definitely was a big momentum swing for us.”

The Golden Eagles went 7 of 8 from the free-throw line the rest of the way, the last two by Hayward with 3.2 seconds to go that made it 80-76.

Marquette was able to control the tempo for most of the game, keeping the Wildcats from opening the game they way they like in leading the conference at 82.8 points per game.

Scottie Reynolds, Villanova’s first-team All-Big East selection, was 4 of 10 from the field, including 2 of 5 on 3s, and had 10 points. He was 5 of 16 from the field, making only 1 of 9 from 3 including a possible game-winner, and had 17 points in the 68-66 loss to West Virginia to close the regular season.

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