The Marquette Golden Eagles unexpectedly trailed at the end of the first half against Butler Bulldogs but something shifted for coach Shaka Smart‘s squad when they returned from the locker room.
Shots were not falling for the visiting Golden Eagles against the Bulldogs when they started the game. Their defense was lost, too, allowing their opponents to score 42 points.
The struggle was all in the mind for Smart’s players and they were reminded about it come the second half.
They can beat their defenders off the dribble and that’s what they did when the game resumed. They even sacrificed their three point shooting for it.
“We felt the we could get to the basket. We needed to get more aggressive at both ends of the floor. I actually felt that we played well on offense in second half. We missed some shots that were open. It was on the defensive end that we needed to improve,” he told reporters post-game.
“That first half was just not us defensively. We talked about being ‘uncommon’ tonight. I thought that the way our guys prepared it allowed us to go into the locker room and respond and attack and be much better.”
The change paid off as the outscored their opponents in the second half, 43 against the hosts’ 27, and win the game by nine points.
Marquette Golden Eagles’ bench provided lift
The starting five led by Stevie Mitchell shot the lights out and the bench did not play much minutes in the game. The relievers still got a shoutout from Smart.
“Zaide, Tre, Royce. And Caedin and Damarius when they got in… I thought our depth was an advantage with Butler playing only 7 guys. And us being able to get a lot of guys in there…and obviously with foul trouble with Kam and Jop,” the coach said.
Tre Norman had 5 points and five rebounds while Zaide Lowery had 5 points and boards.
Royce Parham is not the best one from the bench, scoring just three points but he made a good account of himself while the starters have to troop to the bench momentarily due to foul trouble.
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