Gardner scores 18 and five others make important contributions to let MU escape late against SE Louisiana and go 2-0

After lowly Southeastern Louisiana pulled to within 53-51 with just 4:13 to play, Davante Gardner worked inside on consecutive trips in the next minute to finish with 18 points in just 21 minutes and help Marquette finally pull away for a 64-53 win.

The one strength SE Louisiana has is that www.kenpom.com ranks them as one of the best 40 teams in the country at protecting the ball, and MU had only 4 steals in the game until Cadougan stole one at the end.  When MU cannot get transition baskets and has to win half court, it seems clear Gardner can be the unstoppable force as he showed tonight.

However, the quick Value Add rating (this is based on a much simpler game formula that will not exactly reflect the season ratings in a few weeks) calculated that the top six players on the team were very balanced.  Gardner had an 8.3% Value Add, Chris Otule was at a very strong 5.1% and the other four starters were in between them.  A rating of more than 3% is a solid BCS Starter, so these were six strong performances in a low scoring game.

One interesting note is on the number of possessions used by player (these can be fractions if one player misses a shot and another grabs an offensive rebound, etc.).  Gardner use 14 possessions, Vander Blue used 12 possessions and everyone else was below 8.  Obviously Gardner had better results on 8 of 14 shooting, while Blue struggled again at 1 of 7 with 3 turnovers.  However, Blue's ability to draw fouls and hit all four free throws while grabbing 5 more defensive rebounds did make him a valuable contributor despite the shooting woes.

Still, the team will have to step it up next Monday in Hawaii against Butler with a potential next game against UNC.  Here is the Value Add breakdown on each player in order of Total Value for the game.

vs. SE Louisiana	value add	def sub	Total Value	Key Notes
Davante Gardner, F	8.0	-0.3	8.3	18 pts and 4 OR in 21 minutes - 14 possessions
Jamil Wilson, F	7.0	-1.0	8.0	5 asts and 7 reb despite 2-8 shooting
Junior Cadougan, G	5.3	-1.9	7.2	5 ast only 1 TO and only player with 2 St
Vander Blue, G	5.1	-1.4	6.5	5 DR, 4-4 FT but 1-7 FG & 3 TO, 12 possessions
Trent Lockett, G	5.3	-0.4	5.7	6-6 FT
Chris Otule, C	3.7	-1.5	5.1	4-6 FG & 5 Reb
Juan Anderson, F	2.1	-0.1	2.2	2-4 FG & 2 Reb
Jake Thomas, G	0.7	-0.3	1.0	2-3 FT & 2 Reb
Jamal Ferguson, F	0.0	-0.9	0.9	1 Reb & 1 St
Steve Taylor Jr., F	0.4	-0.3	0.6	2 Pt, 2 Reb, 1 Ast in 7 minutes
Derrick Wilson, G	0.3	0.0	0.3	2 Ast, 0 TO