Gonzaga mauls Marquette

In what will be one of this season's most frustrating defeats the Marquette Warriors spit the bit tonight against the Gonzaga Bulldogs, losing 66-63 at the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic in Kansas City.

Marquette never displayed its 'A game' tonight, falling behind early and trailing 42-33 at the break. The Zags shot lights out in the first half nailing six three-pointers including five by Steven Gray who finished with a team-high 20 points. The Warriors made adjustments at the half and Gonzaga failed to connect on a three-pointer in the game's final 20 minutes, but that adjustment was not without consequence.

Mark Few's Bulldogs found another way to keep MU at bay by owning the backboards in the game's crucial stages. To say that Marquette was destroyed on the glass would be an understatement; Gonzaga ripped down 15 of its 17 offensive rebounds in the second half. That is not a misprint. The Warriors were no match for the Bulldogs' toughness.

All told Gonzaga earned a 42-26 rebounding advantage and a startling 17-6 advantage on the offensive glass including the 15 they claimed in the second half alone. Despite the beat down in the paint Marquette closed the gap to just two points late in the game but failed to launch a quality shot as time expired.

Jimmy Butler led MU with 22 points and 5 boards. The senior ignited MU's late run, scoring 13 of the team's final 17 points including a three-pointer with 45 seconds remaining to bring Marquette to within two. Darius Johnson-Odom finished with 13 points while Jae Crowder added 10. For the game MU shot just 39% from the floor including an ice-cold 29% from three-point range.

With the loss MU falls to 4-2 on the season. Next up for MU are the UW-Milwaukee Panthers in the final (we hope) Bud Haidet Classic on Saturday.

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