Marquette men’s basketball improves to 2-0 on the young season after edging out the University of New Hampshire Wildcats 75-70 Nov. 12 at Fiserv Forum.
Here’s a breakdown of Friday night’s contest:
Game MVP: Darryl Morsell
For the second-straight game, Morsell recorded a career-high in points. This time, the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year put on another shooting clinic as he posted 26 points on an efficient 8-for-12 shooting from the field which included going 3-for-5 from the 3-point line.
“Darryl’s just a leader, he’ll do anything he needs to do to help us win and tonight we needed him to score and that’s exactly what he did,” redshirt first-year Oso Ighodaro said.
Marquette men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart said he brought Morsell to Marquette for his defense, but it’s his offense that has led the Golden Eagles to their first two wins of the season.
“I thought Darryl really stepped forward. I’m really hard on him defensively because I just know how good he can be, but I thought he really dug in and gave great effort,” Smart said. “For him to play such an efficient game offensively, you can’t ask a whole lot more out of him.”
Morsell scored 19 of his 26 points in the second half alone, as the veteran guard used his collegiate experience to take over the game when his team needed him the most.
Key Stats:
- Marquette went 7-for-27 (25.9%) from 3-point land throughout the night.
- UNH shot an efficient 12-for-27 (44.4%) from beyond the arc.
- The Golden Eagles shot 75.0% from the free throw line while the Wildcats went just 58.3% from the charity stripe.
- Both teams had 18 bench points respectively.
- Marquette won the transition battle as they outscored UNH 21-5 in terms of fast break points.
- The Golden Eagles had a season-low nine turnovers on the night.
- The rebounding battle was shared as both teams finished with 38.
Notes:
- Redshirt first-year forward Justin Lewis recorded back-to-back double-doubles for the first time in his career, finishing with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
- Redshirt first-year forward Oso Ighodaro collected a career-high 12 rebounds coming off the bench for the Golden Eagles.
- Jayden Martinez led the Wildcats with 21 points on 7-15 shooting and 4-8 from beyond the arc.
- Nick Guadarrama also contributed for the Wildcats as he poured in 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Quote of the Day:
After recording his first collegiate double-double in Tuesday night’s win over Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville, Smart said he challenged Lewis to get another. Tonight, Lewis did just that.
“I’m proud of Justin, he’s 19-years-old and has made just incredible growth since he got here to Marquette,” Smart said. “Last year for him was such a learning experience, but I think coming into this year the most impressive thing he’s done is that he’s connected his growth as a person with his growth as a player, and the good thing is he has so much more room for growth.”
Next Up:
Marquette (2-0) now welcomes the No. 11 Illinois Fighting Illini to Fiserv Forum Nov. 15 at 6:00 p.m. Central Standard Time.
This article was written by Sam Arco. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @SamArcoMU.
