Marquette's Darius Johnson-Odom drives on Michigan's Zack Novak in the second half of MU's 79-65 victory (AP/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Apparently Buzz Williams and his youthful and inexperienced Marquette squad did not receive the memo that they were supposed to struggle early and often this season.
Less than 24 hours after defeating Xavier, 71-61, in the opening round of the Old Spice Classic, MU (projected to finish 12th in the Big East preseason coach’s poll) took down No. 15 Michigan (3-1), 79-65, Friday afternoon and will play Florida State Sunday at 4:00pm for the tournament title.
Led by Lazar Hayward’s 22 points and nine rebounds, MU (6-0) shot .528 from the field (28-53), .353 from beyond the arc (6-17), .810 from the charity stripe (17-21) and controlled the game from the outset.
Trailing 2-0 after a Manny Harris layup within the game’s opening minute, MU went on an 8-0 run over the next three minutes and would never trail again.
Aggression and speed was the Golden Eagles’ M.O. in the first half and they never let off the clutch. In addition to having four of their first five baskets come within the paint, MU, during one stretch in the opening frame, scored on eight consecutive possessions and 10 of 11 to build a 33-21 lead more than halfway to intermission.
While the Wolverines went on a 10-3 run to narrow the gap to five (36-31) with 4:10 to play, MU regained a 10-point advantage courtesy of five straight points from junior Dwight Buycks. MU took a 44-35 lead into the half.
Harris, Michigan’s leading scorer, was held to nine first half points. Darius Johnson-Odom paced MU with 12 points (4-6 FG, 2-3 3PT FG), with Jimmy Butler adding eight points and Hayward contributing seven.
The Wolverines played to their national ranking as the second half began as John Beilein’s squad from Ann Arbor, Mich. went on a 12-4 run (punctuated by a Laval Lucas-Perry triple) to trim MU’s lead to 48-47 at the 16:00 mark.
After a timeout by Williams, MU quickly responded with a 10-0 run (led by Hayward’s six points) of their own to establish a 58-47 lead with 12:27 remaining.
The Wolverines, however, would not get within seven points again as the Golden Eagles put the game on ice by connecting on 10 of their 12 free-throw attempts (Butler 3-4; Hayward 7-8) over the final 9:45 in regulation.
While the Golden Eagle offensive performance was perhaps the most balanced and effective of the season up to this point, the defensive effort put forth was equally impressive.
“They did a great job of contesting shots,” said Michigan senior forward DeShawn Sims, who scored a season-low eight points on 3-10 shooting, according to gomarquette.com. “We just wasn’t able to knock down any shots today. A credit to their defense; they did a great job defending us.”
For the game, MU held Michigan to 45.4 percent from the field (25-55) and an anemic 15.0 percent from beyond the arc (3-20). Perhaps the greatest testament to the all-around effort by MU was that UM trailed by nine at the half despite connecting on 51.9 percent from the field (14-27) in the first half.
“I thought we did a great job of handling their changing defenses,” Williams told the AP, as reported by ESPN.com. “We had our hands full from the beginning.”
Harris led Michigan, who will next play Boston College on Dec. 2, in scoring (22 points), rebounds (eight) and assists (four).
Game Notes
• Lazar Hayward (1,361 points) moved past Cordell Henry, Russ Wittberger and Mike Moran on the MU all-time career scoring list on Friday. Entering Sunday’s matchup against Florida State, Hayward is currently 18th in school history.
• Meeting for the first time since 1990 (an 89-81 MU loss at Michigan on Dec. 22, 1990), the Golden Eagles are now 6-13 all time against the Wolverines. After Friday’s victory, MU is now 3-2 when playing against a ranked Michigan team.
• Marquette is 6-0 for the first time since the 2006-07 campaign when MU started 8-0.
• In scoring 22 points, UM’s Manny Harris recorded his third consecutive 20-point game for the first time in his career.
• The Wolverine’s 3-20 shooting from three-point range was its fewest makes from beyond the arc since 2007.
• Playing with an eight-man rotation for the second consecutive game, Maurice Acker led the MU bench in scoring with eight points (3-5 FG, 2-4 3PT FG). Acker also had four assists, two steals and zero turnovers in 29 minutes.
• Marquette and Michigan each scored 14 points off of turnovers, while the Golden Eagles had more second chance points (10-8), fast break points (4-2) and points in the paint (42-32). Michigan, however, won the rebounding battle, 33-27.
• The 6’6” Butler put forth a solid all-around effort in scoring 17 points (5-9 FG, 7-8 FT), grabbing nine rebounds (tying with Hayward for the team lead), two assists and two steals in 35 minutes.
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