Enough to advance
Golden Eagles survive their 17 turnovers
It was survive and advance for Marquette, National Invitation Tournament-style.
The Golden Eagles didn’t put together their prettiest performance but did enough to earn a 67-60 victory over Harvard in the first round of the NIT at the Al McGuire Center on Wednesday night.
MU advanced to play Oregon in the second round at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the on-campus venue.
The Golden Eagles (2013) will take any postseason victory they can get. Even one in which they struggled to put away the Crimson (18-14) late in the game.
“Look, we don’t have anybody in our locker room who has won a game in the postseason,” MU coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “You think that’s just going to happen with the snap of your fingers? That’s not the way it works. It’s a process.
“And that’s why us playing in this tournament is fantastic. Because you get to play a championshiplevel team and you learn how hard March games are. So we’re excited to win a game in March.”
The NCAA is experimenting with the NIT rules, including a longer threepoint line and four 10-minute quarters instead of two
halves.
The first two quarters under that format were a struggle for both teams. The teams combined to shoot 18 of 53, 5 of 16 on three-pointers, with 18 turnovers.
Sophomore guard Markus Howard hit a three-pointer with 11 seconds left in the second quarter and MU went into the locker room with a 27-21 lead.
Howard then helped MU gain control in the third quarter, scoring 10 of the Golden Eagles’ 19 points.
The sold-out crowd at the 3,700seat Al McGuire Center was energized by a personal 8-0 run by Howard and two monster slams by sophomore Sacar Anim.
MU’s lead eventually reached 19 points in the fourth quarter.
But Harvard kept chipping away and got to within 65-60 after MU had three turnovers in the final minute.
Golden Eagles fans could not breathe easily until senior guard Andrew Rowsey sank two free throws for the final margin with 11 seconds left.
“It’s March,” Rowsey said. “So every game is going to be tough. Every game you’re going to have to tough it out like we did tonight.”
MU lost the ball seven times in the fourth quarter, leading to nine points for Harvard.
The Golden Eagles finished with 17 turnovers. Rowsey had six, freshman wing Jamal Cain five and Howard four.
MU’s sloppiness on offense helped keep Harvard in the game despite the Crimson’s 22-of-53 shooting and 22 miscues of its own.
“We turned the ball over like crazy,” Wojciechowski said. “It’s hard to get your defense set when that happens. They scored 21 points off our turnovers.”
Howard led MU with 22 points. Rowsey added 15.
Sophomore wing Sam Hauser had four points on 2-of-5 shooting and played just 15 minutes due to foul trouble and a persistent hip issue.
“We didn’t want our season to end,” Howard said. “Harvard is a great team, we knew they were going to make a run. (It was) just the fact that we didn’t want to stop playing.”
Sophomore guard Justin Bassey had 19 points for Harvard, which won the regular-season title in the Ivy League.
The Golden Eagles finished 7 of 16 on three-pointers with the longer distance (22 feet 1 3/4 inches) being used for the NIT.
“The three-point line made it interesting,” said Rowsey, who was 3 of 6 from beyond the arc. “I thought it would benefit us a little more because of the shooters we have.”
Rowsey, the team’s lone senior, was happy to earn the chance to keep playing, even with the struggles.
“That’s how we look at it in March: You march on,” he said. “Survive and advance, that’s what we did tonight.”