Marquette University Athletics
Men's Basketball Beats Boise State in NIT Second Round
3/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Marquette is one game away from making a second consecutive Final Four appearance, only this time the stakes aren't nearly as high.
Travis Diener scored 15 points, and Marquette held Boise State to a season low in scoring, beating the Broncos 66-53 in the second round of the NIT on Tuesday night.
The Golden Eagles are the first team since Minnesota in 1998 to fail to make the NCAA tournament after advancing to the Final Four a year earlier. They return plenty of players from that Final Four team, with freshman Dameon Mason the only newcomer to get a lot of minutes.
"Last year was very new," Marquette coach Tom Crean said when asked whether last year's experience helped in the NIT. "Right now, they really know how to lock in and prepare.
"The veterans -- there's a calmness about them," he said. "So much of what you do in March is about attitude and what your attitude is like, and our attitude has been great."
Marquette (19-11) will play Iowa State (19-12) in the quarterfinals on March 25 or March 26, with the time and location to be determined.
Crean bought 1,000 tickets for Marquette students, helping to bolster the crowd to 11,386. He spent time after the game hoping the NIT would give the Golden Eagles a third consecutive home game.
"We rushed off the court, lobbying, doing everything we can to get that game," Crean said.
Defense won the game for Marquette, which only shot 37 percent. Boise State (23-10) averages 74 points a game, but missed 32 of 58 shots in failing to tie the school record of 24 victories set in 1987-88.
The Broncos are a running team, but got only eight fast-break points and struggled from the outside, missing 19 of 21 shots from beyond eight feet.
"When you're a running team, and you don't run well and you don't shoot well, it makes it kind of tough to get it done," Boise State coach Greg Graham said.
The Broncos' previous season low was in a 55-44 victory over Fresno State on Feb. 14.
"We knew if we didn't get back, they would beat us," Marquette's Steve Novak said of stopping Boise State's fast break. "So, we worked on it all weekend."
The Broncos used an 8-3 run to close to 53-48 on Jermaine Blackburn's fast- break basket with 2:37 left. Diener, who missed 10 of 14 shots, then hit a 3-pointer and Mason made two free throws with 1:29 left for a 58-48 lead.
Boise State, which had won nine of 10, could get no closer than nine points the rest of the way as Marquette made all 10 of its free throws in the final 89 seconds.
Mason scored 14 points and Scott Merritt added 11 points and 10 rebounds for Marquette in the first meeting between the teams. Aaron Haynes scored 21 points for Boise State, but was their only player in double figures.
Marquette used a 12-4 run to open the second half and take the lead for good. Merritt scored seven points during the run, including a layup with 17:05 left that gave the Golden Eagles a 35-27 lead.
Neither team shot well in the first half, which ended 23-23. Haynes scored 11 points to lead Boise State, which made all 11 of its shots from the paint and at one point did not score for more than seven minutes.
Marquette missed 20 of 28 shots in the first half and was led by Novak's eight points.
