Marquette rallies to take down North Dakota before holiday break
MILWAUKEE -- During a film session Sunday, Steve Wojciechowski warned his team of the dangers of looking past the final game before holiday break.
All that stood in the way of the Marquette Golden Eagles and three days off was North Dakota, a team ranked No. 315 out of the 351 Division I college basketball teams by KenPom.com.
A lackluster first half had Marquette on the verge of heading into the break with a loss, but the Golden Eagles found a spark in time to pull away for a 67-54 victory in front of 12,536 at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
"I'm happy with the win, but I'm not overjoyed with how we played," Wojciechowski said. "If you ask my staff or the team over the last 48 hours, I was scared to death about this game. Just from my experience as a player and a coach, the game right before break - and this is true if you look at the scores nationally - is a tremendously dangerous game.
"My fear was twofold. One, I have great respect for North Dakota, but secondly, there's a fight against human nature, too. Especially for our team, having come off two good performances, the natural tendency is to let up. We did, but fortunately we were able to pull together in time to get the win."
The Golden Eagles hit just one of their first 10 shot attempts and scored just three points over the first seven minutes, 34 seconds. Marquette was 4 of 20 from the field when Estan Tyler hit one of his six 3-pointers to put North Dakota up 20-12.
Marquette responded with an 11-1 run to take a 23-21 lead, but 3-pointers by Tyler and Terrel de Rouen helped North Dakota take a 29-24 advantage into the break.
After shooting over 50.0 percent in consecutive games, the Golden Eagles went 9 of 30 (30.0 percent) from the field in the first half. Marquette also missed 10 of its 12 attempts from beyond the arc and were just 4 of 10 from the foul line in the opening 20 minutes.
The Golden Eagles were thrown off a bit by North Dakota's decision to double team sophomore center Luke Fischer every time he touched the ball. After going 17 of 19 from the field against Arizona State and Alabama A&M, Fischer was 1 of 4 with two turnovers in the first half.
"We came out there slow as a lot of teams have been doing throughout the country (in the last game before holiday break)," senior guard Derrick Wilson said. "Teams have been losing left and right to teams most people think they should beat. Before you go home, a lot of guys are checked out already. That's one thing we didn't want to do.
"We started off slow, but when we got back into the locker room the older guys told everybody, 'We've got to win. Do whatever you have to do to get yourself up and win this game.' That's what we did."
A back and forth game for the first eight minutes of the second half turned into a double-digit lead for Marquette following a 17-5 run capped by a 3-pointer by Matt Carlino.
With North Dakota holding leading scorers Duane Wilson, Matt Carlino and Fischer to a combined eight first-half points, the Golden Eagles needed others to step up offensively.
Derrick Wilson and Jajuan Johnson were up to the task, teaming for 25 points in the second half to match North Dakota's second-half output themselves.
"North Dakota did a great job on the guys we usually depend on to score," Derrick Wilson said. "That's when other guys have to step up. That's how it is going to be all year.
"We didn't have a lot of energy in the first half, and I think everybody could see that. It was apparent. I tried to give us a boost as a leader in the second half. As the oldest guy on this team, I have to show those guys what you have to do in order to win a game like this."
Derrick Wilson finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists with no turnovers in 36 minutes. He scored 11 points on 4 of 6 shooting in the second half, including hitting a critical layup off an offensive rebound when North Dakota was threatening to pull away.
"Derrick played like a man," Wojciechowski said. "I thought his will to win was even better than his numbers, and his numbers were terrific. When we were really struggling to score, he had an offensive rebound put back, which is just a will play. That's a guy saying, 'We're not going to lose.'"
Johnson scored six points during a 12-3 run that gave Marquette a 50-42 run with 7:42 to play. The sophomore finished with a game-high 19 points after scoring a career-high 22 against Arizona State on Tuesday.
He's averaging 16.7 points in three games since being held scoreless against Wisconsin in 10 minutes off the bench.
"JJ is on a tremendous uptick as a player," Wojciechowski said. "His drives in the second half were so strong. We just kept going to him. We went to him and he delivered. He was so determined and strong on his drives. Over the last two weeks, he's made some real progress as a player."
After taking the next three days off, Marquette will return to practice Friday in order to prepare for Sunday's non-conference finale against Morgan State.
Like the game before holiday break, the game following the short layoff is usually a challenge as players can be sluggish after traveling to spend time with their families.
"A lot of guys kind of take these next two days off," Derrick Wilson said. "Coach told us to not just sit on the couch for the next two days. I'm pretty sure everybody is going to get shots up, go running or something like that. We have to come back focused on the 26th to get prepared for Morgan State."
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