It took the Marquette Warriors less than eight minutes to erase the sting of consecutive losses as they raced to an early 18-point advantage over the hapless Rutgers Scarlet Knights, cruising to a decisive 82-59 victory.
Maurice Acker, the BIG EAST's most improved player, continues to impress. The senior keyed MU's early surge by scoring 12 of the team's first 23 points all on three-point bombs. Acker finished with 14 points and five assists.
Jimmy Butler and Darius Johnson-Odom led the team with 16 points each while Joseph Fulce scored 13 points off the bench. Lazar Hayward finished with a dozen and is now just the third player in MU history to notch 1600 points and 800 rebounds in his career.
As a team MU connected on 53% of its three-point attempts (9-17) but that was not the most impressive aspect of their offensive effort. Led by Johnson-Odom and Acker, Marquette consistently attacked the rim off the dribble leading to open looks from deep and a number of points in the paint by the crafty guards.
With the win Marquette moves to 12-8 on the season and 3-5 in conference play. The Warriors travel to Hartford on Saturday to take on UConn.
Media Recaps
Go Marquette.com official recap
Box Score
Rutgers loses 9th in a row
Journal-Sentinel recaps the win
Buzz Williams' post game press conference
**And by the way, Brad Galli was the best Campus Connection reporter we've seen on ESPN. Fine work, Brad. Check it out -- and follow Brad on Twitter here.
Lets carry the momentum to Hartford. We're going to need a similar 3pt% to pull a win out @ UConn. I feel like we're do for a big W on the road.
ReplyDeleteNice to see Junior scored points. It's a really special kid who came back the way he has and I look forward to seeing his contribution grow exponentially with time.
ReplyDeletehere's a much better feed of the Brad Galli video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQqQBhgwi2o
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