That’s How It’s Done: Golden Eagles 83, Brotherly Love 76

And so, as it was on Monday night, it was a putback by a non-Marquette guy that gave the Marquette alumni team the win. This time it was Elgin Cook flipping in a Jamil Wilson missed triple that counted as the Elam Ender for #4 seed Golden Eagles as they beat #12 seed Team Brotherly Love, 83-76, on Friday afternoon at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The win puts the Marquette alumni squad into the semifinals of the Basketball Tournament for the third consecutive year.

The first half was a quality contest with both sides hitting shots and Golden Eagles holding a 41-40 advantage after 18 minutes. The two sides traded the lead back and forth on the first few possessions of the second half, with Ramone Moore giving Brotherly Love a 44-43 advantage on a pair of freebies.

And then the Marquette guys found a whole new gear.

Triple by Dwight Buycks, triple by Maurice Acker, triple by Jamil Wilson, turnaround by Wilson, triple by Buycks.

14-0 run in less than four minutes. It would ultimately turn into a 22-4 run that almost ended the quarter. Moore got a free throw in the last 30 seconds to shake that up, but Golden Eagles led 65-49 after three quarters. That’s a 24-9 quarter for the Marquette squad, and that permanently tilted the game in their favor.

The lead flickered up to 17 briefly, but was down to just 11 when Golden Eagles called timeout at the 3:58 mark to trigger the Elam Ending. Darius Johnson-Odom started the untimed session off with a layup, but Brotherly Love got the next five points to make it an eight point game, 77-69. Of course, the Target Score was 83, so the advantage was still in the MU guys’ favor. Elgin Cook chipped in some free throws, but Moore got some of his own and drained a bucket to make it a six point game, 79-73. Narrowing, but again: Just four points from the win. Wilson scored again to bring Golden Eagles within two points of the Target, and after a triple from Samme Givens, Cook did the work to end the game.

The two teams ended up pretty similar on the stat sheet. Pretty close in effective field goal percentage, pretty close in turnovers, pretty close in offensive rebounding rate. Golden Eagles held a teeny tiny edge in both of the first two categories, though, and that appears to be just enough to give them the win and the one step closer to the winner-take-all $1 million prize.

Buycks led the way for Golden Eagles with 19 points in this one, and he chipped in five rebounds, two assists, and two steals along the way. DJO hit for 18 and Wilson had 15 to round out the list of guys in double-digits. Cook finished with a very quality eight points and eight rebounds, although perhaps none more important than the last two and one respectively. Samme Givens topped the stat sheet for everyone with 22 points. The Marquette squad did a good job on the top two scorers from Brotherly Love’s first game, as Khalif Wyatt and Ramone Moore combined to shoot 7-for-20 from the field, even if they combined for 23 points.

Up Next: Well, that’s not 100% for sure quite yet. We know the game will be on Sunday at 3pm Central on ESPN. The opponent is up in the air for the moment, as Red Scare and House of ‘Paign are at the half. Red Scare has a 38-32 advantage of House of ‘Paign at the break, but HOP has Mike Daum.