Get That Ball: #9 Marquette 80, Butler 70

The Golden Eagles didn’t shoot it well, but they rebounded it & took it away enough to win their Big East opener.

Sometimes you’ll hear people say something like “basketball boils down to a shot making game.” I am not here to debate these people or these ideas.

I am, however, here to point out that sometimes you have to do other stuff to win a basketball game. Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum was one of those times, as YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles just could not shoot straight for 40 minutes…… but they could rebound against Butler and they could force some turnovers, too. That’s why it’s MU smiling and high-fiving after an 80-70 victory in the Big East opener for both squads.

The fact of the matter is that Butler held the lead for more than 19 minutes of the first half. Their largest lead came very early as they got three free throws after a goofball scramble foul call that was declared a shooting foul and a pair of three-pointers, and that’s how they led 9-3 with just under two minutes gone. But they held that lead, right up until MU snuck out in front 27-26 with 4:29 to go, and it was still Butler by three, 35-32 at the break.

Why was Butler up? Because Marquette was shooting 12-for-36 from the floor and a very terrible 2-for-15 from long range. VERY SPECIFICALLY, Marquette was 1 for their last 14 three-pointer attempts when everyone went back to the locker rooms to chat and get a beverage, and even more specifically, Marquette had missed five straight threes when the halftime horn sounded.

Why was it only a three point margin? Because Marquette provoked six Butler turnovers in the first 20 minutes, and MU was killing Butler on the glass. The Golden Eagles rounded up 10 of their 23 missed shots in the first half and turned those 10 into 17 second chance points. On the other end, MU let Butler get to just two misses for a bonus opportunity. That’s pretty great news, because Butler was shooting 43% from long range in the first half, and letting them take another crack at it would have been bad.

The last bucket of the first half was a David Joplin putback. The first four buckets of the second half were all for Marquette for a 10-0 run in total, and thus a 40-35 lead. Remember how Butler had the lead for over 19 minutes in the first half? That 10-0 run allowed Marquette to do the same thing to the Bulldogs in the second half. Butler would never lead again after that burst.

That isn’t to say that the game was suddenly over. It took until just over five minutes remaining for Marquette to stake themselves to a 14 point lead, and that’s largely because the Golden Eagles just. kept. missing. three-pointers. They missed their first three long range attempts after halftime to turn that into 2-for-18 in the game and 1 for their last 17 because they made the first try of the game. 4-for-15 behind the arc is nobody’s idea of a good time, but that’s what MU did in the second half.

And yet, they held that lead. Why? Eight Butler turnovers vs none at all for Marquette following the break. Eight offensive rebounds for Marquette on 17 chances in the second half. Butler? One second chance in nine tries, and yes, the fact that BU shot 13-for-22 from the field in the second half was absolutely a problem for Marquette. That’s why MU never quite really shook Butler off in this game, and why it was definitely still in doubt when Kolby King and Patrick McCaffery drained threes on back-to-back possessions for the Bulldogs. that left 1:50 on the clock and it was just a six point game, 73-67, at that point.

But Stevie Mitchell cooked McCaffery for an and-1 out of a timeout, and then Chase Ross attempted to dunk on Butler’s entire roster at once — he missed some guys, but not the dunk — and that was that. Marquette is 1-0 in the Big East, and Butler is 0-1.

Kam Jones had a rough time shooting the three — most everyone in blue and gold did here — but he was 10-for-17 inside the arc, and that’s how he got to a game high 23 points. Jones also added a team high five assists and team high two steals, and his seven rebounds are nothing to sneeze at. He was second only to Stevie Mitchell in that column, as Mitchell had 15 points nine rebounds, and two steals. David Joplin had a bad shooting night from the field, but a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe gave him 15 points to go with six rebounds.

How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Fox Sports?

Up Next: The Golden Eagles have a road trip this weekend that looked easier on Wednesday morning than it does on Thursday morning. Xavier, fresh off the announcement that Zach Freemantle would be missing an extended stretch of time, gave UConn all they could handle up in Connecticut before taking a 94-89 loss in overtime. The Musketeers are now 8-4 on the year. Tipoff there is set for 11am Central time, and Fox will have the broadcast.