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Jamel Artis scored the final three points of the game on three free throws over the final 63 seconds as Pittsburgh rallied to beat Marquette, 78-75, in the consolation game of the 2K Classic. Marquette falls to 2-2 on the season.
The Golden Eagles built themselves an 11 point lead at halftime, largely on the back of Andrew Rowsey and Matt Heldt. Rowsey provided a spark off the bench for Marquette late in the half, finishing with a team high 10 points at the break. Heldt provided defense in the middle with Luke Fischer sitting on the bench with three fouls, and even got into the scoring action of an absurd dish from Rowsey as the junior transfer came dribbling through the lane.
That lead wandered out to 15 on a triple from Katin Reinhardt and a freebie from Rowsey early in the second half, but Pitt just chipped away at the lead before tying it at 59 with 10:33 left in the game. The two teams started trading leads down the stretch, but the Panthers slipped out to a four point lead on a Ryan Luther layup just past the four minute mark.
It seemed that Marquette might have some life in them when Rowsey dodged a shot clock violation bullet with 2:24 left. He drew a foul from behind the three point line from Chris Jones and drained all three from the charity stripe to knot the game at 75. That would end up being Marquette’s final points of the game, and their only points in the final three and a half minutes. A Duane Wilson layup that gave MU a 69-68 lead was their final field goal of the game, which probably explains a lot about how the scoreboard looked at the end of the game.
Rowsey finished with 20 points to lead the team. He was 3-7 from behind the three point line, which is fine, but the rest of the team was just 4-for-19 from distance. Fischer did a good job on the glass with nine rebounds, but scored just five points. Meanwhile, Fischer’s primary defensive assignment was Pitt’s Michael Young, who went crazy for 30 points, seven rebounds, and four blocks.
Up Next: The Golden Eagles have a three game homestand between now and Badger Hate Week which kicks off with their final game of the 2K Classic. IUPUI comes to the Bradley Center on Tuesday.