Rutgers 59 Marquette 82

Desperate for a win and a morale boost of any kind, the Marquette Golden Eagles got both Tuesday night compliments of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Thanks to 16 points apiece from Jimmy Butler and Darius Johnson-Odom and a barrage of 8 three-pointers in the first half, MU jumped out to a huge lead and breezed past Rutgers, the lone remaining winless team in the Big East Conference, 82-59, at the Bradley Center.

Maurice Acker added 14 points, Joseph Fulce a career-high-tying 13 and Lazar Hayward 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Golden Eagles (12-8, 3-5), who righted the ship after last week's losses at DePaul and Syracuse. But another daunting road challenge lies ahead in the form of No. 19 Connecticut on Saturday.

“We celebrate or mourn until midnight, then you've got to get up and work again,” coach Buzz Williams said. “If I was more intelligent, maybe I'd say something different.

“I Googled 'magic pills' after we got beat by DePaul. Nothing came up. I told our team, 'I tried to help you, but all I know to do is just keep working. That's it.' ”

MU, which entered the game leading the nation in three-point accuracy for the second consecutive week, was on the mark from long distance from the opening tip.

The Golden Eagles knocked down their first 4 three-pointers in grabbing an 18-5 lead by the first media timeout and by the 12:50 mark had stretched their advantage to 25-7 thanks to 6-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc.

Four of those threes came from Acker, who - counting his 6-for-6 performance against Providence on Feb. 6 - had hit 10 straight at the Bradley Center before finally missing on his fifth attempt of the night. He's now an incredible 18 for 23 (78.3%) in Big East play.

Rutgers, which had lost 23 of its last 25 Big East games heading in and all seven of its games this season by an average of 18 points, had no answer for the early barrage. And with the Scarlet Knights rolling over, the Golden Eagles started dipping into their bag of tricks.

First came Hayward, double-teamed in the post, dropping a picture-perfect behind-the-back pass to a cutting Fulce, who laid the ball in unmolested. Then a few minutes later, Acker passed up a wide-open three in favor of Fulce, who without hesitation stepped up and drained the second of his career to make it 39-16 with 5:48 left.

MU scored just one point over the final 3:12, leaving the door open somewhat for Rutgers to make a run at closing the deficit by halftime. But the Scarlet Knights managed just a three-pointer and headed into the locker room down, 44-21.

“Our whole focus on the defensive end was to take away the three,” said Rutgers coach Fred Hill. “You give up eight in the first half, you dig yourself into too big a hole.”

Rutgers opened the second half a different team, knocking down open shots and moving the ball, and in a little over 3 minutes in had cut the lead to 46-31. The Scarlet Knights had the deficit down to 14 with 13:24 remaining, not long after Hayward made some history with a put-back of a Butler miss.

With his fourth rebound in the first half and that basket, the senior forward became just the third player in MU history to record 1,600 points and 800 rebounds, joining Don Kojis (1,504 and 1,222) and Bo Ellis (1,663 and 1,085). Hayward is now 43 points away from entering the top 10 in scoring.

Rutgers would get no closer than 14 the rest of the way, though, as MU finally stiffened defensively and used a 14-6 run over the ensuing 6 1/2 minutes.

Afterward, Williams spoke of the powder blue jacket he was sporting on the sideline.

“Coach (Al) McGuire's death was nine years ago today,” he said. “For me, without it being spoken, that's why I did it. Because if it wasn't for what he has done, and all the coaches before me, our institution probably wouldn't be what it is, and for sure our program wouldn't be what it is.”

Official Basketball Box Score
RUTGERS vs Marquette
1/26/10 8 p.m. at Bradley Center - Milwaukee, Wis.


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VISITORS: RUTGERS 9-11, 0-8 BE
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
11 MILLER, Dane........ f  4-12   2-5    4-4    1  5  6   4  14  3  1  0  1  32
24 MITCHELL, Jonathan.. f  4-14   2-7    0-0    2  2  4   2  10  2  2  1  0  35
05 NDIAYE, Hamady...... c  3-8    0-0    0-0    4  8 12   4   6  2  2  3  2  36
03 ROSARIO, Mike....... g  6-11   2-5    2-3    0  5  5   0  16  0  6  0  0  35
10 BEATTY, James....... g  4-6    1-2    0-0    0  0  0   1   9  3  3  0  2  30
21 JOHNSON, Austin.....    1-2    0-0    0-1    2  2  4   2   2  0  0  0  0   9
23 JACKSON, Patrick....    1-2    0-0    0-0    1  0  1   1   2  1  1  0  0   8
25 HASANI, Muhamed.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   0   0  0  1  0  0   5
31 COBURN, Mike........    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  1  3  0  0  10
   TEAM................                         1     1
   Totals..............   23-55   7-19   6-8   11 23 34  14  59 12 19  4  5 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half:  8-24 33.3%   2nd Half: 15-31 48.4%   Game: 41.8%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  2-6  33.3%   2nd Half:  5-13 38.5%   Game: 36.8%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  3-4  75.0%   2nd Half:  3-4  75.0%   Game: 75.0%    0


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HOME TEAM: Marquette 12-8, 3-5 BE
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
32 Hayward, Lazar...... f  5-13   2-2    0-0    6  6 12   3  12  2  4  1  2  28
33 Butler, Jimmy....... f  5-9    0-1    6-7    4  4  8   0  16  2  0  1  1  36
01 Johnson-Odom, Darius g  7-14   2-4    0-1    0  2  2   1  16  2  1  0  1  31
02 Acker, Maurice...... g  5-8    4-5    0-0    0  1  1   2  14  5  1  0  2  27
10 Cubillan, David..... g  2-5    0-2    0-0    0  1  1   2   4  4  0  0  0  32
05 Cadougan, Junior....    0-3    0-1    2-2    0  1  1   0   2  0  0  0  0   7
12 Williams, Erik......    0-0    0-0    0-2    1  0  1   1   0  0  0  0  0   5
21 Fulce, Joseph.......    5-6    1-1    2-2    1  2  3   3  13  0  2  1  2  11
23 Buycks, Dwight......    2-7    0-1    1-2    1  3  4   1   5  2  0  0  4  21
45 Frozena, Robert.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   2
   TEAM................                         1  1  2             1
   Totals..............   31-65   9-17  11-16  14 21 35  13  82 17  9  3 12 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 16-31 51.6%   2nd Half: 15-34 44.1%   Game: 47.7%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  8-14 57.1%   2nd Half:  1-3  33.3%   Game: 52.9%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  4-7  57.1%   2nd Half:  7-9  77.8%   Game: 68.8%   2,2


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Officials: Tim Higgins, Bryan Kersey, Gene Steratore
Technical fouls: RUTGERS-None. Marquette-None.
Attendance: 16793
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
RUTGERS.......................   21   38  -   59
Marquette.....................   44   38  -   82
ID=835876

Points in the paint-RUTGERS 28,MU 42. Points off turnovers-RUTGERS 7,MU 20.
2nd chance points-RUTGERS 12,MU 20. Fast break points-RUTGERS 19,MU 23.
Bench points-RUTGERS 4,MU 20. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-0 times.
Last FG-RUTGERS 2nd-00:35, MU 2nd-00:44.
Largest lead-RUTGERS None, MU by 26 1st-02:53.