Marquette University Athletics
Marquette University
UMASS
MU's Hustle Offsets Poor Shooting Night
11/20/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 20, 2000
By LORI NICKEL
of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
These weren't baby steps.
Let's call them leaps and bounds.
After opening its season last week with a disappointing loss to mid-major South Alabama, Marquette came back and played one of it's best games in the Tom Crean era Monday night in the Bradley Center.
Holding off the University of Massachusetts, 68-64, doesn't erase all that ails Marquette. In fact, the poor shooting problem still plagues the Golden Eagles.
This time, however, they had an answer: Hustle.
Despite shooting 32.7% compared to UMass' 43.8%. MU won on the boards, 43-30, and won at the line, converting 30 of 39 free-throw attempts.
"You hold a team to 32 percent from the field, you usually win those games," said UMass coach Bruiser Flint. "That's being for real, now. But they needed to get to the line and they knocked them down"
Holding on by a thread, 60-59, after a late Monty Mack three-pointer, MU refused to relinquish the lead it had maintained the entire second half.
Junior forward Oluoma Nnamaka drove straight down the lane and scored an important basket with 50 seconds remaining and capped the play with a free throw.
From then on, senior point guard Brian Barone, a career 59% free-throw shooter, hit five of six pressure-cooker free throws in the final 26 seconds to seal the victory for the Golden Eagles.
"He showed what kind of leader he is, he showed what kind of confidence he has," said Crean. "He's a fifth-year guy, he's been through it and he's very hungry to succeed."
There were other heroes.
Senior Brian Wardle, playing on a tender and sprained left ankle, came through with 26 points. Nnamaka added 13, and shot 9 of 9 from the free-throw line. MU also held up without center Scott Merritt, who injured his ankle with 13 minutes remaining, and did not return.
Barone and junior point guard Cordell Henry held potential UMass All-American Monty Mack to 16 points on 4-of-13 shooting. It was an ugly game with 55 fouls called and seven players hampered with four or more.
The buildup to this thrilling finish was as entertaining as it was bewildering.
MU came out of the gate hitting just two of its first 19 shots in the first 12 minutes. Soon after, the Golden Eagles found their pot of gold in second, third and fourth-effort shots.
"We're a blue collar team," said Crean. "We have to understand we're not going to be a team that's going to be all flash and dash, we're not a finesse team, we're not a team that's going the 100 point barrier, or maybe even the 80-point barrier very much right now. We have to do the very best with what we have. And that's what they did."
The Golden Eagles raged through a 12-1 run to take a commanding 25-13 lead with 2 minutes 28 seconds left until halftime. How they did it, with offensive rebounds, was critical, since this MU team has never been a good shooting group.
Merritt scored a sweet three-foot baseline jumper after running down two Odartey Blankson misses. Blankson collected the board on a missed Merritt free throw that led to a Jon Harris dunk.
When Wardle scored on a fast break, the entire MU bench was on its feet screaming. Nnamaka rewarded them seconds later with an offensive rebound and putback. Didn't matter if the Golden Eagles had their shots rejected or stalled out with the incessant whistle blowing, they kept pounding the boards, gobbling up any crumbs they could.
Fourteen of MU's first 26 rebounds were offensive.
"I thought in the first half, they just really outscrambled us," said Flint. "There was a five-minute period where they just came away with every loose ball, every loose rebound. That's what got them the lead."
The victory helped soothe the loss to South Alabama.
"We were all disappointed after that loss," said Wardle. "Guys didn't get much sleep that night. After the lead at halftime today, we all looked at each other, like 'Remember the feeling we had after that South Alabama game. The disappointment.' It seemed that everyone recalled that feeling and we knew we couldn't let that happen again."
