West Virginia was kind enough to let Marquette hang around Saturday in their Big East get-together at the Bradley Center.
Big mistake.
The Golden Eagles wobbled through a first half shooting only 33 percent, including 1 of 10 on three-pointers. The Mountaineers shot 50 percent in the enemy’s building but had only a two-point edge at the half, and they needed a three-pointer at the buzzer for that slight edge. Indeed, the game may have been decided at that moment.
“We played about as badly as we could and were only down by two,” said Marquette guard Jerel McNeal, who led all scorers with 26 points, 15 in the second half. “You just figured it couldn’t get much worse than that.”
It got a lot worse, however — but for West Virginia (11-4, 1-2). Marquette shot 52 percent in the second half on its way to a 75-53 victory while choking off a Mountaineers’ offense that was only 9 of 36 from the field.
The turnaround, fueled by a 10-0 spurt midway through the second half and a 24-5 closing run, gave No. 18 Marquette (15-2, 4-0) its seventh straight victory, the third this season over a ranked opponent, and kept the Golden Eagles among the Big East leaders.
The 46 points in the second half contributed to the second-highest total scored against a ranked West Virginia team that is leading the Big East in scoring defense.
But the key to the game was not on offense. Marquette shot 27 free throws, making 24, to No. 25 West Virginia’s 6 of 10, stemming from a 23-13 foul disparity that was enough to get a second-half technical charged to the Mountaineers’ coaches.
“I would love to wax eloquent on that,” coach Bob Huggins said. “But I can’t.”
There was enough eloquence, however, coming from the Marquette defense. It was the fifth straight game in which the Golden Eagles have made more free throws than their opponent has attempted. In the process, the defense held guard Darryl Bryant, averaging 11 points per game, to no points.
“We have to play defense without fouling, but we also want to play defense up and down the entire floor and that requires discipline,” Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. “That feeds our offense.”
Before a crowd of 17,085, 6-foot-7-inch guard Da’Sean Butler, who totaled one more than his season’s average with all 16 of his team-high points in the first half before fouling out, toyed with the Eagles and the clock before tossing in a three-pointer as the half ended for West Virginia’s 31-29 lead.
“Butler looked like Kobe Bryant,” Williams said, shaking his head.
The Mountaineers, however, had failed to turn the game into a blowout when they had the chance. Marquette was not about to wait around and give the visitors any more chances than it had in the first 20 minutes.
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jmullin@tribune.com
