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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Gonzaga drops Marquette 66-63

Another second half comeback fell short for Marquette as the Gonzaga Bulldogs downed the Golden Eagles 66-63 in the College Basketball Experience Classic Consolation game. The Bulldogs were led by senior guard Steven Gray who had 20 and sophomore forward Elias Harris who contributed with 19.

“Elias really stepped up,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said following the game. “The hardest thing to do in athletics whether its baseball basketball, football or whatever, is when you’re not playing really well, or what you’re accustomed to, is to put an end to it and start playing well.”

The Bulldogs used a 12-2 run to pull away late in the first half and take a nine point lead going into the intermission. The run coincided with the Bulldogs switching to a zone defense against the Golden Eagles

“We’ve always played zone, especially early in the seasons and sometimes late in our seasons, and I’ve been kicking myself for getting away from it a little bit,” Few said. “We strung some stops together, and the guys were more comfortable”

The Golden Eagles answered in the second half with a 12-4 run that cut the Gonzaga lead to 3 with 1:58 to play

“Well I thought we were playing more like us, we just have to do what we do,” coach Buzz Williams said. “When we don’t do that, we’re not nearly as effective.”

The closest the Golden Eagles would get the rest of the way would be two, a game in which they never lead following the 3:50 mark in the first half.

The Golden Eagles falling behind was, according to Williams, because of their lack of ability to rebound. The Bulldogs out-rebounded the Golden Eagles 41-24 overall 17-5 on the offensive glass.

“In the second half they scored ten baskets, they shot 28% from the field,” Williams noted. “Of those ten baskets that they scored, seven of those were on offensive put backs, so that is definitely why we got beat in the second half.”

For the second straight game the Golden Eagles struggled from three point line, going 4-20 against Duke Monday night and 6-21 Tuesday night against Gonzaga. Williams said Tuesday night’s performance from three point range was not as disconcerting as Monday’s.

“I thought last night we took too many surprise shots, I’m not concerned about the numbers of threes we take, I’m concerned with the number of threes we take prior to a paint touch … of the 14 shots we shot in the first half that were threes, only three of them did the ball touch the paint before we shot it.”

The Golden Eagles had an opportunity late to tie it, but a last second three by Jimmy Butler, who led Marquette with 22 points, fell short.

The Golden Eagles’ 0-2 preseason tournament record is certainly not what they wanted, but Williams said that his team will take some positives from the trip to Kansas City.

“I told them that we spent a lot of money, ate really good food, stayed at a really nice hotel, played on national TV, played the No.1 ranked team, the No. 21 ranked team, and we learned that we have to be us.

“We learned that when we’re not us we’ll get beat by any team that we play, and when we are us we’ll have a chance to beat any team that we play.”

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