The shorthanded Marquette Golden Eagles ran their unbeaten streak to nine to begin the season, defeating the Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix 79-61 Saturday night at the Bradley Center.
Senior forward Jae Crowder led the way with a game-high 21 points and was one of five Golden Eagles to score in double figures.
The Golden Eagles jumped out to an 11-2 lead to begin the game and never trailed, forcing the Phoenix (4-6) into 25 turnovers which turned into 34 points.
Marquette lost redshirt junior center Chris Otule to an ACL injury in Tuesday’s win over Washington, and freshman Juan Anderson and sophomore Jamil Wilson both suffered injuries in practice earlier in the week. This left Williams with just eight healthy players at his disposal.
“Discombobulating for them, for me,” Williams said of his shallow bench. “I thought (the players) probably handled it better than I did at times. I didn’t think that we were always in a great rhythm, some of which was because Green Bay did a great job, partly was because we were just out of sync at times. But I thought our guys were trying to hang in there, trying to get back in a groove.”
The Phoenix kept in the game for much of the first half after Marquette jumped out to an early lead, playing a zone that threw the Marquette offense out of rhythm late in the first half.
But just as they had done in the opening half, the Golden Eagles were quick out of the gate and scored 12 of the first 14 points of the second half to take a double-digit lead they would not surrender the rest of the night.
Crowder picked up the scoring load for senior guard Darius Johnson-Odom, making a career-best four 3-pointers and hitting 7-of-12 shots.
Sophomore guard Vander Blue continued his terrific run of play as well, finishing with 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists in 30 minutes. He put a display on above the rim with three dunks, including an alley-oop from junior guard Junior Cadougan and a dunk over guard Daniel Turner on a fast break. He was active on the glass and aggressive defensively, finishing with three steals.
Williams said Blue’s confidence has come from the work he has put in early in the season.
“As I tell our guys all the time, true confidence can only come from your work. Not from a Twitter, not from a blogger, not from me going, ‘You’re really good,'” Williams said. “And I think (Blue) has been very accountable for his work since our game against North Carolina.”
Marquette committed 16 turnovers in the contest and did not look as sharp as it had in its past two games, but the Golden Eagles shot 50 percent from the field (32-of-64) and created easy baskets off Green Bay turnovers.
Sophomore forward Davante Gardner, who started in place of the injured Otule, played a career-high 30 minutes and finished with 14 points and seven rebounds in the win.
Otule’s presence was missed on the defensive end as the Golden Eagles were outrebounded for the second consectutive game since the redshirt junior center’s injury. Green Bay held a 39-36 advantage in the rebounding category, including 13 on the offensive end.
Green Bay center Alec Brown finished with season highs of 22 points and 14 rebounds against the undersized Golden Eagles. The 7-footer was a difficult matchup for Gardner, who finished with just one defensive rebound. Brown grabbed eight offensive rebounds of his own.
Marquette is 9-0 for the first time since the 2004-2005 season.
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