BOISE, Idaho – Before the men's basketball team's game against No. 3 Missouri Sunday, all talk focused on the near-miraculous return of Marquette guard Dominic James from a broken foot.

But when the final buzzer sounded on Marquette's 83-79 loss to Missouri in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, all talk focused on the game's controversial final seconds.

The chaos started when, with the game tied 79-79 and 5.5 seconds remaining, Jerel McNeal fouled Missouri's J.T. Tiller on a drive to the basket. Tiller, a 75.9 percent free throw shooter, was shaken up on the play. Freshman guard Kim English (65.2 percent free throw shooter) replaced him at the line and sank both free throws, putting Missouri up 81-79.

" I don't think he's the greatest free throw shooter," McNeal said of Tiller. "If you're somewhat hurt, faking hurt, whatever it is you can lay on the ground.It's happened on many occasions, I've seen it done before so it wasn't a surprise to me."

On the ensuing inbounds play, junior forward Lazar Hayward was whistled for stepping over the baseline before releasing the ball. The violation gave the ball back to Missouri, forcing Marquette to foul immediately.

"I thought I was far enough back, but obviously I wasn't," Hayward said. "I was trying to get it to (guard Maurice Acker) and one of (the Missouri players) overplayed and I wanted to throw it, but I didn't think it was there."

Then Missouri forward Leo Lyons hit two more free throws to stretch the Tigers' lead to 83-79. After a desperation heave from Acker sailed out of bounds – requiring another officials' huddle to put 1.2 seconds back on the clock – that became the winning margin.

"I don't think I had any thoughts," senior guard Wesley Matthews said of his mindset during the last 5.5 seconds. "I was just kind of replaying in my head, I guess, how we got down to that point."

Marquette got down to that point by falling behind by as much as 16 with 2:16 left to play in the first half. The Golden Eagles had just one field goal (a buzzer-beating three pointer from McNeal) after the 12:41 mark of the first half.

James played 13 of those first 20 minutes, but was ineffective. He played just four minutes in the second half.

On the strength of McNeal and Matthews – who finished the game with 30 and 24 points, respectively – Marquette clawed from an 11-point halftime deficit. A 10-3 run, capped by a 3-point basket by McNeal, pulled the Golden Eagles to within two with 10:57 remaining.

Matthews pulled Marquette within one at 64-63 with 8:14 left in the game, and gave the Golden Eagles a 71-70 lead three minutes later with an old fashioned three-point play.

"We were much more in character in the second half offensively and defensively than we were in the first half," coach Buzz Williams said. "In the second half we outscored them every media timeout, except for the last one. That gave us a chance."

Marquette shot 40.5 percent in that second half, compared to 34.8 percent in the first half. The Golden Eagles also hit 12-of-15 shots from the free throw line.

But Marquette couldn't put any distance between themselves and Missouri. The Tigers made seven free throws in the final 1:50 of the game, and utilized a balanced scoring attack that saw four players score in double figures.

"I think (Missouri) is one of the best teams in the country," Williams said. "They proved that today."