LAHAINA >> Marquette guard Andrew Rowsey, seated at the postgame interview dais, was in the middle of a thoughtful explanation about his head coach’s history in the Maui Invitational when the man himself strolled into the room.

Steve Wojciechowski stopped and stood waiting with arms crossed.

“Yeah, I’ll say this when he comes in here,” Rowsey continued after a beat. “We fight for one another. We fight for Coach. The way we compete, we want to bring it every game, so that’s what we set out to do.”

Just prior to the appearance of “Coach Wojo,” Rowsey had said: “Well, he told me he hasn’t lost a game here before, so don’t let it happen this time.”

Yes, the Wojo Maui magic endured another day.

Wojciechowski remained unblemished on Maui — as a player, an assistant coach or a head coach — after his Golden Eagles turned back VCU 94-83 in the first round Monday.

It could take some serious doing to uphold perfection today, as Marquette (2-1) earned an 8:30 a.m. date with No. 6 Wichita State in the semifinals.

If the 1997 Maui Invitational MVP was overly concerned about the wake-up time or the caliber of foe that awaits, the former point guard with a hard-nosed reputation didn’t let on.

Now in his fourth year at MU, the 41-year-old Wojo jumped at the chance to bring his own team to Maui for reasons beyond the weather.

“Well, I have a really special feeling in my heart for Maui,” Wojciechowski said during his turn at the podium Monday. “This is my fifth time here, one as a player, three as an assistant coach. This is the first time I’m honored to bring the team here as a head coach. But even before that, when I was a young kid and this tournament used to come on TV, I can remember thinking ‘college basketball is finally back.’ This was always, for me, the tournament that signified that college basketball, which was something I loved from a very early age, was back. To be here and to be a part of it is just a huge honor.”

He paused, as if savoring that last word.

“I want our guys to honor that honor with how hard they play, how together they play and with the way we compete.”

Wojo, at just 5 feet 11, was known for his defensive prowess as a player at Duke. He became a Blue Devils assistant soon after his college career, apprenticing under legend Mike Krzyzewski for 13 years, and was a part of his alma mater’s championships on Maui three more times.

That included 2007, when Duke edged his current employer 77-73 in the championship game.

He won two national championships on the Duke bench and got Marquette back to the Big Dance last season for the first time since Buzz Williams left the Milwaukee, Wis., school for Virginia Tech.

The matchup between the Golden Eagles of the Big East and VCU of the Atlantic 10 was expected to be one of the more competitive of the four in the first round. It lived up to the billing, as the teams pressured each other from end to end.

Marquette, a team stocked with capable shooters, hit 13 3-pointers and got 20-point performances from Rowsey, Markus Howard and Sam Hauser.

The Golden Eagles led by a point at halftime, withstood a Rams lead early in the second half and answered all shots VCU threw their way down the stretch.

“Coach Wojo is the ultimate competitor. He brings that to our team,” Rowsey said. “When we come here, we don’t want to let him down.”