#4 Marquette “Paints” Butler Into Submission Inside Hinkle

Source: Michael Hickey / Getty

INDIANAPOLIS — Marquette has had Butler circled on their calendar ever since the Dawgs got the best of them in Milwaukee back on Jan. 10.

The Golden Eagles were ranked #12 in that game and ever since then had gone on a seven-game win streak, climbing the polls to #4 coming into their rematch with the Bulldogs inside Hinkle Fieldhouse Tuesday night.

The Bulldogs threw everything they had at them, but Marquette literally “painted” the Dawgs into submission as they overpowered them 78-72.

“We have to learn from this game,” said head coach Thad Matta. “We weren’t very good in the first half. We had nine turnovers. We were sloppy. We had one of those nights where we couldn’t make shots.”

The shots Matta refers to were the ones close to the rim.

It was sheer dominance in the paint for the Golden Eagles all game long. Using their long and big talent in Oso Ighodaro and Kam Jones, Butler was outscored 46-20 in the paint. Ighodaro accounted for 17 of those points on his way to a double-double with 10 rebounds.

Oddly enough Butler out-rebounded the Golden Eagles 39-34. This marks the first time all season the Dawgs have out-rebounded an opponent and lost. They had been 13-0 in that regard coming into the match-up.

“Those guys are so good,” Matta said of Marquette. “You don’t hear a lot about their defense. They are hard to score against. They have guys that can make plays. They got guys that can hit shots.”

Butler was still Butler throughout the game despite the loss: one of the stingiest opponents any team will face in the Big East this year. Though Marquette lived under the basket all night, the likes of Jalen Thomas, Andre Screen, and Jahmyl Telfort certainly made it as difficult as possible.

Screen had three blocked shots, Thomas led the Dawgs in rebounding (7), and Telfort was steady scoring in the first half hitting from inside and out to eventually amass 12 points for the night.

The second half was more of the same as Butler kept throwing wave after wave at the Golden Eagles, who bent but did not break holding Butler at arms-length.

With 9:20 left, Butler found themselves down nine and in desperate need of a spark. They found it in freshman Finley Bizjack who would go on a flurry accounting for 14 of Butler’s last 22 points. He hit three 3-pointers, drew fouls, was 6-of-8 at the foul stripe, and finished the game with a team-leading career-high 17 points off the bench; hot shooting for a player who is not fond of the “shooter” moniker.

“I wouldn’t consider myself a shooter at all. I’m a basketball player,” Bizjack said. “Passing the ball, playing defense, shooting threes, I just try to do whatever the game asks of me.”

“Finley practices like that,” Matta said of Bizjack. “He did a good job of taking what the defense gave him. His reads were really good. We needed him to play well. He’s an extremely competitive kid. He does not like to lose.”

Though Bizjack’s superb run cut the Marquette lead to two, 64-62, with less than four minutes to play, not enough of the game came to the rest of the Bulldogs as Tyler Kolek’s 27 points led the Golden Eagles down the stretch. They kept making miraculous shots to keep the lead and hold on for the win.

It’s also worth noting that Marquette took DJ Davis out of the game completely. Davis still musters 7 points, but the loss snaps a four-game stretch for him with at least 20 or more points.

Now with eight straight wins, Marquette finds themselves in the hunt for a possible 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Butler, on the other hand, is still fighting to stay in the conversation to just make the Big Dance. The loss drops them to 7-7 in conference play and sixth in the Big East. Matta says he is not paying much mind to the whole scenario of whether they do or don’t make the Top 68.

“I’ve always said you can’t take care of March if you don’t take care of February first,” Matta said. “We have to be better for Saturday against ‘another Big East team’.”

Butler will stay at home this Saturday as they host #17 Creighton inside Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs beat the Blue Jays in Omaha not two weeks ago.