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--- men_s_basketball:uc_03_02_11 [2011/05/09 17:45]
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+++ men_s_basketball:uc_03_02_11 [2020/12/07 16:49] (current)
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-===== Hayward Finds Touch In Time To Save Marquette  =====
+===== Golden Eagles Come Up Short On Senior Night Again  =====
-{{  men_s_basketball:02_21_10_hayward.jpg?350|}}
+{{  men_s_basketball:03_02_11_butler.jpg?350|}}[[Jimmy Butler]] was present and accounted for on Wednesday night at the Bradley Center.
+The rest of the Marquette Golden Eagles' roster? Not so much.
+As a result, Butler's career 30-point outing went for naught as the [[Cincinnati]] Bearcats - like MU scratching and clawing to solidify themselves for the [[NCAA Tournament]] - quite simply played like they wanted it more and spoiled Senior Night by beating the Golden Eagles, 67-60.
+Butler hit 7 of 15 shots and a remarkable 15 of 17 free throws as [[Cincinnati]] had few answers for the Texan playing his final home game.
+The Bearcats had no trouble slowing down everyone else. [[Darius Johnson-Odom]] did score a quiet 15 points, but no one else had more than four for MU, which saw its three-game winning streak snapped.
+"They outplayed us, overall, for 40 minutes," Butler said, summarizing the night succinctly.
+The loss was the third consecutive on Senior Night under coach [[Buzz Williams]]. Far more troubling, however, is where it leaves the Golden Eagles with regard to the rapidly approaching postseason.
+At 18-12 overall and 9-8 in the [[Big East]], they missed a golden opportunity to knock off a Bearcats team that entered with the same league record and an RPI rating 13 spots higher.
+Doing so would have kept MU in position for at least a first-round bye in next week's [[Big East Tournament]] and provided another quality win for the [[NCAA Tournament]] Selection Committee to consider.
+Now, it heads to [[Seton Hall]] for its regular-season finale on Saturday looking to regain its footing and get to 10 wins in conference play, a figure regarded as the magic number to lock up a sixth consecutive berth in the NCAAs.
+"We need to win," said Williams. "We needed to win tonight. How it shakes out, I don't know. It's all of the weeble-wobble stuff again. If we would have won, does that mean we were in the [[NCAA Tournament]]? I don't know.
+"I know that it's 10 days until Selection Sunday, and of the teams that are in the position that we're in, the teams that win the most are the teams that put themselves in the best position."
+[[Cincinnati]] coach Mick Cronin, whose Bearcats (23-7, 10-7) pretty much locked up their bid by beating MU, said he doesn't think Williams or the Golden Eagles have anything to worry about.
+"It's not even close," he said with regards to MU's NCAA chances. "Anybody who goes 9-9 or better in this league should be in. Period. End of story. Especially this year."
+MU was out of position for much of the first half, thanks in large part to the Bearcats' press.
+Utilizing their length and depth to great effect, they sprung full-court pressure on the Golden Eagles and were able to rattle them almost from the outset.
+MU committed five turnovers in the opening 10 minutes, 6 seconds of the first half, and nine altogether as [[Cincinnati]] used a 16-4 run to open up a 32-26 lead by the 2:41 mark.
+"I don't know. I don't know," Williams said when asked why MU had such trouble against [[Cincinnati]]'s press. "That's what we've practiced since our game against [[Providence]] and, typically speaking, we've always handled pressure pretty well.
+"I don't think it was anything schematic relative to what we were doing. I thought they were the aggressor, relative to their mentality."
+The Golden Eagles settled down considerably with the ball in the second half but mitigated the benefits by falling prey to the Bearcats' offensive rebounding.
+MU got to within 39-38 on a Johnson-Odom layup at the 17:05 mark, but the Bearcats answered with a 9-0 run, with baskets from four different players to stretch their advantage to 48-38 with 12:30 left.
+[[Cincinnati]], which entered the game ranked 10th in the [[Big East]] in field-goal percentage at 43.3%, kept knocking down big shots thanks in large part to the reloads it was able to get from the likes of big men Yancy Gates (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Ibrahima Thomas (12 points, seven rebounds).
+MU's best offense wound up being Butler getting to the free-throw line, where his 15 makes were MU's most since [[Wesley Matthews]] had 15 in a loss to [[Tennessee]] in 2008.
+The Golden Eagles got to within 63-58 with 2:41 left, and the score remained there for almost 2 minutes until a breakout dunk by Thomas off a Butler missed drive sealed the deal for [[Cincinnati]].
 ===== Box Score =====

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