Gonzaga Bulldgos vs Marquette Golden Eagles Basketball Recap
Gonzaga 66, Marquette 63
The Marquette Golden Eagles got the pace they wanted, but they didn’t get the result they hoped for.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs breathed a big sigh of relief on Tuesday night in Kansas City.
It was ugly and hard-fought, and it sure wasn’t a basketball masterpiece, but the men from the Pacific Northwest won’t care. Gonzaga entered the consolation game of the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic with two losses to its name. The Bulldogs had already dropped a home-court decision to San Diego State, and in Monday night’s semifinal at the CBE Classic, they fell to Kansas State by 17 points. Gonzaga and coach Mark Few needed to leave Kansas City with at least one quality scalp, and by the hair of their chinny chin chin, they managed to do the deed.
Marquette, however, did not make it easy for the Zags.
The Golden Eagles, under coach Buzz Williams, like to play a slowdown game. This stands in marked contrast to Gonzaga, which wants to get up and down the court and run the wings for easy buckets in transition. The fact that this game was played in the mid-60s shows that Marquette won the battle of tempos. The Golden Eagles did not allow Gonzaga to get easy fast-break buckets, so one might be led to wonder how the West Coast Conference champions defeated their Big East foe. The answer is as blunt as it is undeniable: pure power near the basket.
Yes, when drawn into a street fight by a Marquette team that likes its basketball to acquire a rough-and-tumble nature, Gonzaga was able to punch back on the glass. The Zags scored only 10 field goals in the second half, but seven of them came on putbacks. Gonzaga destroyed Marquette on the backboard, outrebounding the Golden Eagles by a 42-26 overall margin and winning the battle on the offensive glass by a convincing 17-6 tally. On a night when Gonzaga sharpshooter Steven Gray hit only 6 of 17 shots, teammates Elias Harris and Mangisto Arop filled the gap and provided the Zags with the musclarity they needed against the men from Milwaukee. Harris – who survived an injury scare against San Diego State the week before – combined with Arop to produce a total of seven offensive rebounds. Those seven boards fueled a 19-point performance from Harris and a 15-point effort from Arop off the bench. That’s where the Zags soared and the Eagles’ wings were clipped. It’s a good thing, too; Marquette committed only 10 turnovers and was plus-seven from the foul line (15 makes to just eight for Gonzaga), but the Zags’ boardwork gave them enough possessions – and buckets – to nudge the Eagles by three. When MU’s Jimmy Butler (22 points) missed a 40-foot heave at the buzzer, the Zags’ win was secure.
Speaking of secure, Gonzaga now has a little bit more security after winning a game it absolutely had to have.
Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer
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