Shaka Smart remains undefeated on National Marquette Day.
It wasn’t a high offensive showing from the No. 14 ranked Golden Eagles but behind a sold-out crowd, another halftime buzzer-beater from sophomore guard Kam Jones and defensive stops down the stretch Marquette beat Butler 60-52 Saturday afternoon at Fiserv Forum.
Here is a breakdown of the Golden Eagles’ win:
Game MVP:
With another balanced performance, junior guard Tyler Kolek continued to show he is more than a facilitator.
Kolek put up a team-high 13 points on 4-for-10 shooting from the field, eight assists and three rebounds in 32 minutes.
“I was mad at him (Kolek) today a couple times when he didn’t shoot,” Smart said. “The biggest upgrade in our offense from our team last year is that, both last year and this year the ball is in his hands a lot but now this year, people can’t just play him to pass.”
Kolek is third in the nation in assists with an average of 7.9 assists per game.
Stats:
- The Golden Eagles ended the first-half with 14 points off of the Bulldog’s 11 turnovers.
- Marquette had 17 points off the bench while Butler had six points off the bench.
- Both teams had 12 defensive rebounds by the end of the opening 20 minutes of play.
- Marquette ended the game with eight kills.
- On the day, the Golden Eagles shot 22-for-48 from the field while the Bulldogs shot 19-for-50.
Notes:
- Coming into today, Marquette was ranked first in the country in offensive efficiency on basketball statistics website KenPom.com. Butler was ranked last in the Big East in offensive efficiency in conference play.
- Marquette started the game with five defensive stops in a row.
- The Bulldogs didn’t lead at any point today and the Golden Eagles led for 95.3% of the game.
Quote of the Day:
Butler head coach Thad Matta commented on the last 30 seconds of the first-half, where Marquette jumped out to a 12-point lead heading into the break.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen (expletive) like that in all my life,” Matta said. “I mean, that was tough.”
Next Up:
Marquette (19-5, 11-2 Big East) travels to Hartford to face the UConn Huskies (18-6, 7-6 Big East) Tuesday in the XL Center. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. CST.
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached [email protected] or on Twitter @JackAlbrightMU.
