Exhibition rout provides Marquette with big win, but few answers
MILWAUKEE -- Ignore the final score.
Marquette University outmatched Divison III Wisconsin Lutheran College in every way by such a wide margin that it is nearly impossible to read into the Golden Eagles' 115-47 victory in an exhibition game at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
The Warriors, picked to finish eighth out of 11 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, provided the Golden Eagles an opponent to work some of the kinks out against before the Nov. 14 season opener against Tennessee-Martin.
"I think we definitely got something out of this," Marquette senior forward Juan Anderson said. "I think it is good to get under the big lights with fans to get all the kinks and jitters out. I think it was good.
"We have a bunch of young guys who don't have a lot of game experience. I think it was really good for us. I think we played pretty well, but there are a lot of things we still need to do. Wisconsin Lutheran was a fearless team that attacked us."
Marquette used a high intensity full-court press to build a 29-4 first-half lead. The Golden Eagles forced the Warriors into 21 turnovers in the opening half but only had 43 points at the break.
Eight consecutive misses combined with four turnovers over a six-minute stretch late in the first half left first-year Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski agitated on the sidelines.
"We actually started the game pretty good offensively," Wojciechowski said. "I think we had eight assists on our first 10 field goals. So that's pretty good. I think at times you can start playing the score."
"At halftime we talked about really sharing the ball offensively and trying to execute."
The lull at the end of the first half looked very familiar to the offensive ruts that doomed last year's Marquette team at times. Thirty of Marquette's 43 first-half points came inside the paint, as the Golden Eagles made just 1 of 11 3-point attempts in the opening 20 minutes.
"We can't have those lapses where we are being sloppy," Anderson said. "I think we went about 10 minutes where we just played ridiculously sloppy. We can't do that. That will hurt us later in the season."
After shooting 37.8 percent (17 of 45) in the first half, Marquette made 27 of its 35 field-goal attempts to shoot 77.1 percent in the second half. While the offensive flow seemed improved, it was difficult to really know how much better the Golden Eagles were playing because Wisconsin Lutheran's 33 turnovers turned the second half into a dunk contest.
Anderson, who averaged 3.2 points per game last season, led Marquette with a game-high 27 points. Seeing his first live action of his collegiate career, redshirt freshman guard Duane Wilson scored 11 of his 18 points in the second half.
Sophomore forward Deonte Burton added 17 points, four rebounds and five steals, while sophomore guard Jajuan Johnson chipped in with 16 points.
Freshman guard/forward Sandy Cohen found himself in the starting lineup and finished with 14 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes. Junior forward Steve Taylor Jr. led the Golden Eagles with 11 rebounds to go along with eight points.
Eight of Marquette's nine eligible players played at least 22 minutes. Sophomore guard John Dawson was the lone exception, as he was limited to 13 minutes due to foul trouble.
"Our job is to help them get ready for the season," Wisconsin Lutheran coach Skip Noon said. "I thought we did some things defensively in the first half that hopefully they got something out of.
"They are just so physical. While they are not extremely long, they are quick. They are on the ball. Every pass is challenged. They are so strong with quick hands. You have to do things before you can even receive the ball, and we're not used to that. I think we saw a brand of Duke basketball here. It is going to be exciting for us to watch."
With six days until the season opener, Anderson and Wojciechowski were poised the same two questions: Where is this team at right now? What can this team be?
"Where is this team now? Huh. That's a good question," Anderson said. "I can't answer that. Where can it be? We have a lot of guys that have potential, but then again, it is only potential. I can't tell you exactly where it is.
"Defensively, we are a great team. We are small, but if we overwhelm teams defensively in the full court and half court and not let teams play power ball and throw it into the post, I think we can beat a lot of teams. If we don't rebound, let teams throw it into the post and turn the ball over, we will lose games."
"I think that's very much up in the air," Wojciechowski said. "I think we can be a good team. As I said we have a small margin for error, so we need to stay healthy, we need to utilize each day that we have at practice to get better, we have to pay attention to all the details.
"Our execution on offense, how we work to score together is going to be huge. Not turning the ball over, not taking bad shots is going to be huge. Utilizing our pressure on the ball while at the same time protecting our basket and defensive rebounding. You go down the list there's not one of those things that we can overlook."
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