The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Marquette falls to Lamb, Huskies 76-68

The good news for the Marquette Golden Eagles? Kemba Walker, the nation’s second leading scorer, was held to a season-low 14 points.

The bad news? Freshman Jeremy Lamb came to play.

The Connecticut Huskies allowed Marquette to hang around in the first half before pulling away to defeat the Golden Eagles 76-68 Tuesday night at the Bradley Center.

Lamb finished with a career-high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. He also added four rebounds and four assists. Marquette coach Buzz Williams said he warned his team prior to the game that Walker would not be the only obstacle Connecticut threw its way.

“Kemba Walker is really good; he’ll be the National Player of the Year,” Williams told his team. “But we can’t be foolish enough to think he’s the exclusive reason they’ve only lost two games. You don’t become the fifth best team in the country and just have one really good player.”

With Walker struggling mightily in the first half, scoring just four points on 1-of-8 shooting, Lamb picked up the slack by scoring 12 of his own.

Marquette led by as many as six in the first half, which featured four lead changes, while Connecticut kept the pressure on and, at one point, led by nine. Jimmy Butler was quiet much of the opening half but picked up steam as the half closed, scoring Marquette’s last eight points to contain the Huskies’ lead to seven by intermission.

The second half opened with a bang, with both teams sprinting up and down the court while trading buckets. Marquette tied the game up with back-to-back plays of a Darius Johnson-Odom slam dunk off a Dwight Buycks’ steal and a Jimmy Butler jumper to get the fans of the Bradley Center on their feet.

But just as it was all night, Connecticut was there to answer Marquette’s runs with runs of its own, reeling off the next five points to quiet the momentum. The teams continued to trade baskets, but after Marquette took a 56-51 lead lead with 11:24 remaining, their offense went silent.

Connecticut opened the game up with a 19-7 run over the next 10 minutes, while the Golden Eagles failed to make a field goal. By the time Johnson-Odom made a jumper with 1:47 left to stop the drought, Connecticut had a nine-point lead and the game wrapped up.

Butler, who finished with a team-high 21 points and eight rebounds, attributed a lack of focus on defense to the late run the Huskies made.

“We’re not guarding the way we were supposed to,” Butler said. “We’re just worried about making shots a lot of the time, and we catch ourselves giving up easy baskets on the defensive end. We need to have a mentality of, ‘I’m tired of my man scoring.’”

A crucial reason for Marquette’s offensive drought was Johnson-Odom, who finished with 18 points, picking up his third foul with 14:26 to go, forcing Williams to pull his leading scorer. Despite Marquette going from down four to up five while he sat, Johnson-Odom clearly was thrown out of rhythm, making just one of two shots after he returned as Marquette saw its lead evaporate.

Lost in the third straight loss for the Golden Eagles was Butler scoring point No. 1,000 late in the first half. He becomes the 42nd player in Marquette history to reach that milestone. With 11 more rebounds he can become the 17th player to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds. Butler, however, had few words for his accomplishment after the loss.

“I wish we would have scored 1,000 points and won the game,” he said.

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun did have praise for Marquette in the losing effort.

“I haven’t seen anybody in this league play harder than Marquette does,” he said.

[youtube]PjJfWyMnVug[/youtube]

Story continues below advertisement
Leave a Comment

Comments (0)

All Marquette Wire Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *