The No. 16 team in the country resembled the No. 16 team in the conference, but a series of late steals off full-court pressure spared Marquette's blushes Monday night in its 59-56 overtime victory over Idaho State.,”

Fans were restless. The team was listless. The number of missed shots was endless.

The No. 16 team in the country resembled the No. 16 team in the conference, but a series of late steals off full-court pressure spared Marquette blushes Monday night in its 59-56 overtime victory over Idaho State. With the win, the Golden Eagles advanced to the CBE Classic Regional Final where they will play Detroit tonight at the Bradley Center.

"You have to bring your defensive mentality, and you have to have a rebounding mind-set," head coach Tom Crean said. "And I think that's what won us the game."

Down 50-46 with a little over two minutes left in regulation, Marquette used full-court pressure for the first time in the game, and during this period, sophomore Jerel McNeal had three steals to fuel the comeback.

McNeal forced a jump ball with 18 seconds left that gave Marquette possession down 53-52. After senior Jamil Lott missed a baseline jumper, McNeal gathered the rebound and was fouled but had to leave the game because he had an open cut. Junior Dan Fitzgerald entered and made 1-of-2 free throws to force overtime.

Marquette shot 1-of-10 from the field in the extra period, but a pair of free throws by junior Ousmane Barro with 29 seconds left in overtime gave the Golden Eagles a decisive lead.

Although Marquette's press forced four Idaho State turnovers at the end of regulation (and 25 for the game), Crean said he did not want to use full-court pressure earlier in the game because of the visitors' hot shooting.

"We're not as good in the press yet," Crean said. "So to give those guys open looks I think would have been a big mistake."

Idaho State shot 10-of-23 from beyond the arc, in contrast to Marquette's ineffective shooting against the Bengals' zone defense.

"I don't want to play zone. I'm a man-to-man guy," Idaho State head coach Joe O'BrienSM said. "In seeing the tape from Friday night, we felt like at some point early in the game we would have to play one of our zones. Our 3-2 zone tonight seemed to be a pretty good fit, and it worked."

Although Crean said Marquette moved the ball better than in previous games, the zone defense clogged the penetration lanes and exposed the Golden Eagles' biggest weakness: perimeter shooting. Marquette made 5-of-25 three-pointers and could not establish its transition game, scoring just four fast-break points.

The zone defense "slows us down," said sophomore Dominic James, who led the team with 17 points. "Teams know we want to play an up-tempo style, and they try to slow us down."

Idaho State established a halfcourt tempo after halftime and took a 40-32 lead on a David Schroeder three-pointer with 14:05SM to go. Marquette reeled off eight consecutive points to tie the game at 40 but shot too poorly to pull ahead.

The Golden Eagles shot 29.2 percent from the field and finished 16-of-31 from the free-throw line.

"We had a real rough night again offensively," McNeal said.

Fortunately for Marquette, its defense was just good enough.

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