After torching Bucknell in the last 10 minutes of Sunday's contest, Marquette continued their torrid play against Green Bay, jumping out to a 22-9 lead after just 7½ minutes on Wednesday night. An 8-0 burst after the under eight minute timeout pushed the MU lead to 20 points and the rout was on. The stalemate over the last 26 minutes was a foul riddled, sloppy mess that reminded those still in attendance that this Golden Eagle squad still has a lot of growing up to do.
Six Marquette cagers (getting my 70s Peter Gammons on) scored in double figures, including all starters save Chris Otule. New Marquette folk hero, Davante Gardner scored in double figures for the 3rd consecutive game and Jae Crowder quietly continued to be the best newcomer with an impressive 17 & 9 outing. The highlight of the night, was, without a doubt, the Darius Johnson-Odom and-one tomahawk jam over 6'9" forward Clayton Heuer.
Thoughts:
- The point guard position appears to be getting a bit more settled with both Dwight Buycks and Junior Cadougan. They combined for 10 assists to only two turnovers in 39 minutes of action. Buycks got off to a hot start, scoring 10 points in the first nine minutes, including two treys.
- Chris Otule still has a long way to go, but he put in a solid 11 minutes, which included four blocks with only one foul. Marquette big man progress, folks!
- The poor team free throw shooting continued. MU hit only 64% of their attempts from the charity stripe. Throw out Jimmy Butler's 7-7 effort and the numbers are downright grisly.
- Interestingly, MU took better care of the ball in the second half, but wasn't able to extend the lead. They had nine turnovers at the half, but only coughed it up four times after the break. GB finished with 17 turnovers.
- As mentioned above, Gardner scored 11 points, but it was a sloppy effort. He bobbled a couple of passes and had some bad misses against an overmatched Phoenix frontcourt.
Now, on to the awards portion of the show
Player of the Game: Tonight's POTG is an easy pick, the dreadlocked one, Jae Crowder. Crowder poured in 17 points on 7-11 shooting from the floor and pulled down 9 boards, five offensive. Crowder scored 8 of his points in a 90 second span in the first half, including a smooth stroke from threeland. Crowder has quietly been a beast this year. He's averaging 12.7 ppg and 8.7 rebounds/game while shooting a blistering 61% from the field.
Joe Fulce Undersung Eagle of the Game: With six guys putting up double digits, it's tough to pick an Undersung Eagle of the Game, but tonight's nod goes to Vander Blue. Vander didn't dazzle, but cashed in on some easy bunnies to the tune of 14 points on 7-10 shooting.
Up next: The monsters of the Great West Conference, the South Dakota Coyotes invade the Bradley Center at 1:30 on Saturday. The Coyotes hung tough with Nebraska in their opener, losing 76-68 in Lincoln. South Dakota launched 30 three pointers in the game, so look for some quick trigger fingers on Saturday afternoon.
Edit - added DJO's monster jam.