The Marquette men’s basketball team never broke open enough of a lead to stop Notre Dame from storming back in regulation and grabbing the victory in overtime, 63-60.
The game, Marquette’s senior day, was the team’s fourth overtime game in its last five contests, but only its first overtime loss of the season.
“Things just didn’t go our way,” senior guard David Cubillan said. “They executed well in overtime and we didn’t, so they came out with the win.”
The Golden Eagles (20-10, 11-7 Big East) came out strong against the Irish (21-10, 10-8 Big East), grabbing an early 19-8 lead in the first ten minutes. But Notre Dame mounted at 10-0 run and held Marquette without another basket until the 3:45 mark.
With under two minutes left in the half, Notre Dame’s Tory Jackson misplaced a pass to teammate Luke Harangody. The ball flew to the sideline but caught the referee’s foot and bounced neatly back into Harangody’s hands. Notre Dame’s Ben Hansbrough drew a foul inside and an already enraged Williams was called for the technical foul. Tim Abromaitis and Hansbrough sank all four free throws to tie the game at 24.
The teams exchanged baskets to send the game into the half tied at 26.
Notre Dame went ahead briefly in the second half, before the Golden Eagles rebuilt their lead to as much as nine points.
The Irish, however, clawed back to within three points and held possession as the clock wound down. Notre Dame hit one of its 16 3-pointers up to that point, but none of that mattered to forward Carleton Scott, who drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 51 and send it into overtime
“We played everything the right way,” Williams said. “That was a good shot. But I wasn’t upset with our kids on how we defended it.”
Senior forward Lazar Hayward, who led Marquette in regulation with 15 points, fouled out less than a minute into overtime. With his performance he passed George Thompson to move into second place on Marquette all time list of leading scorers.
“It means everything,” junior Jimmy Butler said of what the accomplishment meant to Hayward. “But he deserves it. … He’s just a great leader and great person.”
Without Hayward on the floor, the Irish went ahead 58-53 in the extra period. A late 3-pointer by Butler cut the deficit to two points.
Then, with his team down 61-59, sophomore Darius Johnson-Odom was fouled and sent to the charity stripe. After Johnson-Odom made the first free throw, Williams decided not to have him intentionally miss the second. He sank the shot, but Notre Dame’s Abromaitis hit two free throws at the other end, leaving just 2.3 second left on the clock. A desperation heave by David Cubillan didn’t fall and Notre Dame pulled out the 63-60 upset.
