Butler 85, Marquette 79: Golden Eagles suffer their second loss of the week
INDIANAPOLIS – After riding high for a month, the Marquette men's basketball team has crashed back to earth.
The Golden Eagles put forth one of their worst first-half efforts of the season and couldn't climb out of that early hole in an 85-79 loss to Butler on Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
MU (16-9, 8-6 Big East) has lost three of four since a seven-game winning streak. The Golden Eagles could fall out of the rankings after being No. 19 in the Ferris Mowers coaches poll and 18th in The Associated Press top 25 this week.
Box score: Butler 85, Marquette 79
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The Bulldogs (12-13, 5-9) came into the game ranked last in the conference in offensive efficiency, according to college basketball statistical website kenpom.com. But MU's defense didn't offer much resistance and the Golden Eagles quickly fell behind, 31-11.
Butler, which entered the game shooting 31.1% on three-pointers, made six of their first eight shots from long range.
"Especially when you play a team for the first time," MU head coach Shaka Smart said. "I think how they feel about Marquette in the opening minutes of the game is dictated by what we do.
"And what they felt like early on, you could see, was, hey, we can go get baskets on these guys inside, we can make threes on these guys, we can offensive rebound on these guys. And that's what they did, they were just more aggressive than us. We were at nearly a season low in deflections (16)."
The Golden Eagles fought back to get within 33-19, but Butler hit back with seven unanswered points to take its biggest lead.
MU went into the locker room trailing, 42-27, missing a chance to get closer when Oso Ighodaro and Justin Lewis collided trying to catch the ball in the waning seconds to finish off a frustrating 20 minutes.
The Bulldogs looked much more connected on offense, with 18 assists on their 29 field goals. The Golden Eagles had eight assists on their 25 field goals.
"We settled for some tough shots, but this game was not lost on the offensive end," Smart said. "This game was lost on the defensive end. Gave up 85 points – 42 and 43 in the two halves – it can't be that way. Especially on the road."
MU, as it has done all season under Smart, mounted a spirited comeback in the second half.
The Golden Eagles finally got within single digits when Lewis (27 points and nine rebounds) flew in to tap in a miss from Darryl Morsell and then Morsell hit a three-pointer to make it 56-48.
A three-pointer from MU guard Tyler Kolek and a dunk from Ighodaro after a turnover made it 60-55 with 7:44 remaining.
Kolek sank back-to-back threes to close the gap to 69-65 with 4:44 remaining, but that was as close as MU would get.
"Our response has been great all year," Kolek said. "Earlier in the year, we got down a bunch in a bunch of games. That was a point of emphasis for us, coming out, starting the game better.
"If you have nights like this, it's not acceptable. The first five, we got to set the tone."
The Golden Eagles couldn't stop Bryce Golden and Chuck Harris from hitting big shots down the stretch. That duo combined for 37 points, including 21 in the second half.
"Our whole thing is respond," Smart said. "Focus on the next most important thing. We talked about that at halftime. I thought we did a decent job of it at times in the second half, but we weren't as sharp as we needed to be in terms of taking away the things we needed to take away from Butler."
Kolek added 17 for MU and was 4 for 8 on three-pointers, one of his best shooting performances of the season.
"It's kind of a sour taste in my mouth," Kolek said. "Making shots, we're still losing, so it doesn't really matter. I can score three points like I did against Providence and we won by 30 (on Jan. 4). That's all that matters, I could care less about that.
"Just confidence-wise, for me seeing the ball go through, my coaches want me to shoot it. When they go under (the screens), they want me to shoot it every time. So just trying to bring that to life and make shots for my team."
The Golden Eagles have five more games in the regular season, starting with Georgetown on Wednesday at Fiserv Forum.
"It's all about response," Kolek said. "We talked about Butler having to pay for us losing to UConn (on Wednesday). So we got to carry that over and the next team has to pay for this."
Contact Ben Steele at (414) 224-2676 or bmsteele@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenSteeleMJS or Instagram at @bensteele_mjs.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Butler 85, Marquette 79: Golden Eagles suffer second loss of week
