Ryan Ellerbusch
Looking for another 22-point repeat win over Notre Dame like the one just 12 days ago, Marquette got off a hot start in the first-half before a strong second-half surge propelled the 16th ranked Fighting Irish over the Golden Eagles 80-75.
Darius Johnson-Odom led Marquette with 25 points and the Golden Eagles led by as much as 12 points before Marquette’s 61.5% shooting from the field in the first half cooled off drastically. From that point on, they shot just 30% in the second-half and Notre Dame cracked down defensively therefore slowing down Marquette’s aggressive offensive attack to squeak out the win. Once again, Marquette failed to hold a second-half lead on the road despite a 45-36 advantage at halftime. Notre Dame grabbed the lead for good with 10:28 remaining in the game, their first since the score was 2-0, when Ben Hansbrough drained a timely 3-pointer and finished with a game-high 28 points.
Marquette saw extended playing time from senior forward Joe Fulce who saw 17 minutes of action and tallied 10 points and 5 rebounds in place of Jae Crowder and Chris Otule who both fouled out in the game with four minutes remaining. Jimmy Butler also put together another consistent performance with 12 points and is just one point shy of scoring 1,000 career points in Marquette basketball history.
Marquette will look to slow down Kemba Walker and the 8th ranked UConn Huskies Tuesday Night at 8 p.m. when the Golden Eagles return to The Bradley Center. Marquette will look to feed off the energy from their home court crowd and get back to their winning ways.
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