Marquette 82 Providence 79

Providence, R.I. — The Marquette Golden Eagles were in full panic mode. The Providence Friars were going for the knockout blow. The Dunkin' Donuts Center crowd of 12,061 was in full throat.

And then Lazar Hayward took control.

Over the final 47 seconds of the teams' Big East Conference showdown Saturday afternoon, the senior forward rebounded a shot that could have given the Friars the lead, grabbed an offensive rebound on the other end, hit a pair of free throws to give the Golden Eagles a three-point lead and then, with time winding down, defended a ball screen to perfection.

Vincent Council's three-pointer came up short as a result, and MU escaped with an 82-79 victory in a game that easily could have swung the other way had it not been for the senior forward pulling his team back from the precipice after it had nearly coughed up a seven-point lead in the final 1 minute, 19 seconds.

“We've been in so many different situations in the past, I kind of know what it takes,” said Hayward. “I guess it's my experience and instinct.”

While Hayward's performance down the stretch saved the day, his play throughout helped keep MU afloat during some long stretches of ineffectiveness - especially in the first half. He tied career highs with 28 points and 5 three-pointers while also adding nine rebounds, four assists and four steals in 39 minutes as MU (15-8, 6-5 Big East) won its fourth straight game and its second straight nail-biter on the road.

Almost as important was his and teammate Jimmy Butler's (19 points, seven rebounds) success late in slowing down Providence wing Jamine “Greedy” Peterson, who was threatening to single-handedly take the game over roughly three weeks after being ejected from the teams' first meeting.

“I think it's a senior, but I also think it's a really good human being who's a really good player, who's playing for his last time at Providence and knew we didn't play well for the first 20 minutes,” MU coach Buzz Williams said of Hayward. “He was doing absolutely everything he could to help his team.”

Consecutive three-pointers by Hayward and Butler had staked MU to a 78-70 lead with 2:04 remaining, and the Golden Eagles were leading, 80-73, when things began to go haywire.

First, Council went to the free-throw line with 1:06 left. He hit his first and missed the second, but the Friars rebounded and got the ball out to Sharaud Curry, who hit a three to make it 80-77.

On the ensuing inbounds play, Darius Johnson-Odom passed the ball right to Council under the basket. He passed to Peterson for a layup, and it was 80-79 with 56.8 seconds left. Williams called a timeout to set up the next inbounds play, but that one went awry as well as Butler took a 5-second count.

With the crowd going bananas, Providence had a chance to wrest the lead back but could only manage a forced shot by Marshon Brooks, which Hayward rebounded. The Golden Eagles brought the ball up court and called a timeout with 23.7 seconds left on the game clock and 11 on the shot clock.

The best look they could manage was a long three attempt from David Cubillan, which he missed. But Dwight Buycks was able to tap the ball away from the basket, and Hayward came down with it. Providence fouled him, and he made both free throws with 13.2 seconds left, making it 82-79 before the Friars called a final timeout.

Coming out of that, MU doubled Curry, who had scored 23 points and hit 5 threes to that point, so the ball ended up in Council's hands. Pushed far out on the right wing by Maurice Acker, Council tried to free himself off a screen near the top of the key. But Acker and Hayward played the situation perfectly, and with no alternative, Council launched a long, fall-away three that came up short as time expired.

“We won and we're happy about that, but it doesn't mean anything moving forward,” Hayward said. “It doesn't guarantee we'll beat South Florida (Saturday), and all we can do is keep doing the same things we've been doing.”

Peterson led the Friars with 28 points and 11 rebounds.