Marquette beats Louisville to win Tip-Off third place
NEW YORK — Markus Howard made the go-ahead basket in overtime to cap a 21-point night and lead Marquette past Louisville 77-74 in the third-place game of the NIT Season Tip-Off on Friday night.
“I thought that this was one of the best four games that Markus has had since he’s been at Marquette,” Golden Eagles coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “Markus has a lot of pressure to deliver and he delivered in a big way.”
The Golden Eagles (4-2) were once again led by Sam Hauser, who followed up his strong semifinal performance with 22 points. His brother Joey hit the two free throws to put Marquette up by three with 18 seconds left in the extra period.
Joey Hauser had a putback off Howard’s miss to tie it at 68 with 20 seconds left in regulation. Darius Perry then missed a 3-point attempt from the wing, and Louisville couldn’t get a couple of putback attempts to drop before the buzzer.
Christie Cunningham
scored 16 points for Louisville (4-2). Jordan Nwora had 15 points and seven rebounds, and Steven Enoch hit his first three shots and finished with 10 points.
Louisville led by as many as eight points before Marquette took its first lead, 55-53, on a dunk by Theo John with 6:42 remaining.
From there, it was back and forth.
“Our guys didn’t quit
in overtime. In the last three or four minutes, to have a couple point-blank offensive rebounds to win it and then to come to the huddle — that can be a defeating feeling. Our guys did not let it defeat them,” Louisville coach Chris Mack said. “It came down to a one-possession game after they scored first in overtime. We’re a resilient team and we’re going through some hard lessons.”