Friday's game against intra-city "rival" Wisconsin-Milwaukee was one the Marquette men's basketball was supposed to win big. By all accounts, the No. 11 Golden Eagles should have been able to walk all over the Panthers, who were 3-3 and coming off losses to Drake and Sam Houston State.

So what was the most impressive part of the Golden Eagles' 100-65 blowout win? The fact that they actually did it.

See, this edition of the Marquette men's basketball team has a nasty little habit of playing down to its competition, at least in November. Last year, Idaho State made Marquette sweat during a 59-56 overtime victory. That same Golden Eagles squad needed a Dominic James three-point basket in the closing seconds of a win against Valparaiso and lost to North Dakota State by four.

This year, Marquette has turned in underwhelming efforts against underwhelming opponents on three occasions-an eight-point win over IUPUI, a late 11-point win against Utah Valley State, and an 11-point win over Chaminade.

"One of the things that (head coach Tom Crean) has been harping on is that once you get a team down, you can't let them back in," said junior Jerel McNeal. "You can't let them stick around, you can't let them think they have hope.

"When they're down, you've got to kick them."

Coming home from the Maui Invitational, a tournament in which Marquette played three times in three days and lost to No. 6 Duke in the championship game, it would have been easy for the Golden Eagles to suffer a letdown against the Panthers.

But it took all of about 10 minutes for Marquette to prove it hadn't looked past UWM.

The game wasn't a rivalry. It wasn't a close contest. After Marquette took a 20-17 lead on a jumper by Lazar Hayward with 10:45 left in the first half, it wasn't even a fair fight. James turned in his best shooting performance of the year, making 10-of-15 from the field and scoring 22 points. McNeal scored 16 points and added 10 assists.

"I'm proud of the way my team competed; we've had a lot of time off," Crean said. "I think we got better once this game was over than we were a week ago. I think we made a lot of improvement."

In early-season wins over IUPUI and Utah Valley State, the Golden Eagles struggled to score consistently against 2-3 zones. But Marquette was able to penetrate the UWM defense and kick the ball out to perimeter shooters. The Golden Eagles' shooters were able to hit those outside shots, making 47.1 percent of their three-point attempts in the first half.

"I think the one time we struggled, we saw 80 percent of zones in the first two home games of the season. I think we struggled more in the first game because we weren't as physical, and we didn't do a good job of getting the ball inside," Crean said. "Tonight was about getting the ball inside, getting it reversed and attacking different people in the zone."

Hayward, who finished the game with 19 points and 11 rebounds, his first career double-double, said it was the driving ability of James, McNeal and Wes Matthews that allowed the Golden Eagles to break down the Panthers' zone.

"It's kind of easy, having Jerel, Wes and Dominic because it's hard for guys to stay in front of them," he said. "They're just straight athletes, terrific drivers. Teams are so predicated on them, that it's kind of easy."