MU falls to East German women's swim team

Alando Tucker and his East German women's swim team mates of Butch, Chappell and Stiemsma knocked off Marquette 70-66 at the Bradley Center. It was Maurice Ryan's first win ever over Marquette on road in a defensive struggle. Tucker finished with 28 points in his 5th year playing against Marquette.

MU continued their trend of shooting poorly and were saddled with foul trouble the moment Tim Higgins threw opening jump ball. Two MU players fouled out with another finishing with four. Barro picked up his 4th foul only 2:19 into the second half after getting a rebound and then elbowing a badger in the chops. An amazing call that the announcers questioned. Jerel McNeal picked up his 4th foul about 6 minutes later.

MU's Dominic James finished with 19 points, almost all in the second half...a trend that has been mind boggling of late.

The East German swim trio of Butch, Stiemsma and Chappell did their best to clog the middle and force MU into tough shots and perimeter play. They succeeded more often than not. MU again shot below 40% and their 3 point shooting was an abysmal 17%. More of the same of late.

MU's defense was the lone shining stat as it has been all year long. The Badgers turned it over 21 times, a huge number for a Maurice Ryan coached team, but MU often did not cash in on those turnovers. Case in point in the second half MU made a steal and had a 4 on 1 break out when McNeal tried to feed Dominic James an alley oop only to airmail the pass high over his head. MU could have cut the lead at that point to 3 points.

Box Score

Recap from AP

Paul Day at the MU Trib.