Marquette leads from start to finish in win over No. 9 Syracuse
By Paul
Imig
FOXSportsWisconsin.com
January 29, 2011
MILWAUKEE -- It was a game that Marquette knew it needed to get. The players talked about its importance with each other beforehand and didn't sugarcoat it afterwards.
With recent Big East losses coming despite second-half leads, the Golden Eagles led by 11 entering halftime of Saturday's game against Syracuse.
After going nearly four minutes without a basket to start the second half, the Orange quickly got back to within four points.
But senior forward Jimmy Butler was determined to get his first career win against Syracuse, the only team Marquette had not defeated since joining the Big East six years ago.
Butler hit two heavily-contested 3-point shots in the final four minutes of the game, both as the shot clock expired, to help the Golden Eagles to a 76-70 win.
"We definitely needed this game," junior guard Darius Johnson-Odom said. "Losing close games hurts the most. We came out with a mindset that we were going to win tonight."
A 25-14 run by Syracuse to start the second half tied the game for the first time all day, but Marquette responded quickly as a sell-out crowd at the Bradley Center erupted.
The game was tied again two more times over the final three minutes, but the Golden Eagles never surrendered the lead.
"When you play a team like Syracuse, they're going to make runs," Johnson-Odom said. "It's just how you control their run. We learned from all eight losses that we have, in the close games of what we needed to do."
Syracuse never had a lead in the game as they dropped their fourth in a row after beginning the year 18-0.
"You compete against the best and that's a really hard thing to do," Marquette head coach Buzz Williams said. "When you get beat, you're like, 'Man, we're so close.' But you've got to get to the next play, because if you don't get to the next play, you're going to get beat again. And this league gives you opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to prove yourself."
The two contested 3-point shots by Butler down the stretch were the 'Toughest shots of the game,' according to Orange head coach Jim Boeheim.
"He made two great plays and that was the ball game, really," Boeheim said, adding that his offense played as well as it had all season.
Butler finished with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Johnson-Odom added 17 points on only seven field goal attempts.
Johnson-Odom had a scary moment in the closing seconds of the game as he grabbed his back and winced in pain, but he said it was, "Just a little muscle ache" and "Nothing too serious."
Marquette was led by Jae Crowder with 25 points and seven rebounds, as he continues to impress coaches throughout the Big East.
"He's a tremendous player," Boeheim said of Crowder, a junior college transfer in his first year with the Golden Eagles.
Next up for Marquette is a road contest at No. 8 Villanova to conclude a stretch of four consecutive games against top-25 teams.
