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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Marquette holds off New Hampshire 58-53

Marquette+holds+off+New+Hampshire+58-53

The offense has been far from perfect, but the Golden Eagles will gladly take a win when they can.

Marquette overcame a sluggish effort to hold off New Hampshire 58-53 Thursday night. Senior Chris Otule and junior Todd Mayo led all scorers with 16 points apiece, while Patrick Konan paced the Wildcats with 14.

It was another struggle on the offensive front for the Golden Eagles, shooting just 32.7 percent for the night and 3-for-22 from 3-point land. Marquette was coming off a 52-35 loss to Ohio State last Saturday, a game in which the team shot 19 percent overall.

The first half saw No. 25 Marquette jump out to a 21-5 lead behind Otule’s nine points. The only two New Hampshire field goals through the first 13 minutes were from leading scorer Chris Pelcher, who later fouled out with 9:41 left in the game.

The Golden Eagles’ hot shooting would later cool down, closing the first half shooting 1-for-13 and putting together just five points in the 10 minutes before the break.

Coming out of a 25-18 halftime advantage, Marquette jumped out to a 35-22 lead with 15:04 remaining after an and-one put-back by freshman Deonte Burton, but New Hampshire’s dormant offense would jolt itself in the later minutes.

The Wildcats would go on to make six of their final 10 field goals after having previously gone 11-for-40. Daniel Dion made one of UNH’s seven second-half treys with 7:27 to go to make the score 43-34. The Wildcats later traded a pair 3-pointers with Marquette senior Jake Thomas to get the score to 51-41 with four minutes left.

Otule split a couple of free throws with two minutes left to give the Golden Eagles a 53-44 lead, but a layup by Konan and a 3-pointer by Jordon Bronner cut the margin to four with 44 seconds to spare.

Mayo made three of four foul shots down the stretch to push the advantage to six, and New Hampshire bricked a 3-pointer with 12 seconds to go that would have made it a one-possession game. Dion connected on a deep ball after senior Jamil Wilson split a pair of free throws to slash it to a four-point game, but Wilson was then fouled and made a foul shot with 5.7 seconds to go to seal it.

The Golden Eagles were out-rebounded in the second half 20-13, but did an effective job pressuring the Wildcats into 20 turnovers and coming away with 10 steals.

The team was a major presence in the paint, outscoring New Hampshire 26-10 on the inside and earning 12 second-chance points on 13 offensive boards. Otule developed a comfort zone on the block, shooting 6-for-7 and coming away with easy hook shots and layups.

The concerns, however, remain on offense. The Golden Eagles are shooting just 38.1 percent overall and 18.3 percent from behind the arc through their first four games.

Free throw shooting has also eluded Marquette to start the year; the team is putting together a mediocre 62.6 percent effort from the charity stripe.

With a five-game road trip looming, the team will need to address the offensive woes sooner rather than later.

“I hope so,” coach Buzz Williams said. “We’ll find out. It’ll be a really long year if we don’t.”

The team travels to Arizona State Monday as part of the DirecTV Wooden Legacy, and it will next return home Dec. 14 against IUPUI.

 

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