Marquette University Athletics
Marquette Tops Coppin State, 65-55
12/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Milwaukee, Dec. 29 ? A solid 65-55 win over Coppin State (2-9) tonight at the Bradley Center improved Marquette?s record to 11-1, the Golden Eagles best start since the 1978-79 season.
After surviving a first half run by Coppin State, the Golden Eagles were able to spend the second half maintaining its advantage.
Marquette started the game with a full court press that caused Coppin State to turn over the ball and allowed the Golden Eagles to jump out to an early 11-2 lead.
After a brief run by Coppin State in the game's first twelve minutes that gave them a one point lead, Todd Townsend hit the first of his pair of three-pointers to reclaim the lead. Marquette never trailed past that point.
Steve Novak?s three first half treys kept Marquette clipping on offense and gave them the eight point halftime lead.
Marcus Jackson?s big presence under the basket kept Coppin State from getting any offensive rebounds and his defense kept the Eagles shooting percentage to just 27.6-percent in the second half. Jackson led the Golden Eagles in rebounding with seven.
After having a quiet first half scoring only six points, Travis Diener picked up speed in the second, hitting two three-pointers to bring his game total to a team-high 16 points. Diener also added seven assists and five rebounds.
Nicholas King led Coppin State with 16 points, Darryl Proctor was the only other Eagle in double-digits with 14 points.
Although Marquette came away tonight with a win, Diener thinks they could have done things better on offense.
?We can?t just settle for jump shots and we did that tonight,? he said. ?We have to learn how to get the ball inside against a zone defense; as a team we?re just not attacking and I think that will get better as the season goes on.?
Coach Tom Crean agreed with Diener?s observations.
?There?s a lot of learning steps to be taken from this game,? he said. ?I think right now certain players don?t understand how good they can be when the drive the ball. It?s important that we?re aggressive on zone. We?ve got to get the ball inside more and not just to throw it inside but to get the penetration.?
Marquette closes out non-confernce play on Sunday, January 2, hosting IPFW at 6:00 p.m.
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