Golden Eagles doomed by a cold start
Marquette’s highly anticipated game with fourth-ranked UCLA started later than expected on Saturday.
The Golden Eagles’ shooting was also very tardy.
MU suffered through an especially frigid start and could never dig out of that hole as the Bruins cruised to a 67-56 victory at Fiserv Forum.
The game was delayed by seven hours to 8:30 p.m. after UCLA (8-1) had trouble getting to Milwaukee. The Bruins spent Friday night in Denver after a crack was detected in the cockpit windshield of the team’s plane. They arrived around 10 a.m. Saturday
In the first half, it was MU’s offense that was missing in action.
Darryl Morsell hit a three to give the Golden Eagles (8-3) a 3-1 lead 1 minute 7 seconds into the game. But after that, MU went ice cold, going into a scoreless drought of five minutes.
UCLA looked like it was going to run the Golden Eagles out of the gym after taking a 33-10 lead. MU was shooting an eye-gouging 1 for 16 on three-pointers.
“At some point, when you’re not making shots from outside, you got to attack and get in the paint,” MU head coach Shaka Smart said. “But at the same time, you have to take what the other team is giving you.
“I actually thought some of those were really good looks that we missed. There were a few other ones that were forced. I thought we tried to do a little too much early in the clock where we could have attacked and forced them to guard us throughout the clock.”
Greg Elliott gave the Golden Eagles the spark they desperately needed late in the first half. He hit a three, then found center Kur Kuath on an alley-oop and added another triple.
Elliott sank another three right before the buzzer and MU went into the break down, 35-21. Elliott shot 3 for 5 in the first half while his teammates combined for 4 for 26.
“I feel like we were missing some shots that we usually make,” Elliott said. “I just felt like I needed to go out there and stay confident in myself. My teammates needed to do the same thing, stay confident. We put the work in, so I feel like we should never lose our confidence.”
It was the second straight solid showing for Elliott after sparking a key stretch in MU’s victory at Kansas State on Wednesday.
“It starts in practice,” Elliott said. “Battling against them guys on a daily basis can have you ready for any highlevel college basketball game.”
Elliott was inserted into the opening lineup in the second half. He hit a threepointer just over a minute later to pull MU within 37-26.
But the Bruins’ Johnny Juzang answered with a triple of his own. Juzang later hit a layup after a steal and then knocked down another three that gave UCLA a 52-30 lead and appeared to quell MU’s hopes of a comeback.
Juzang had 12 points. Jaime Jaquez Jr. led the Bruins with 24 points.
“Last year, he was one of my favorite players in the country, just watching him from afar,” Smart said of Jaquez. “I knew it was going to be challenging defending him because he really just takes what you give him. And he’s so strong and tough in there. He was a big difference maker.”
The Golden Eagles had another burst to get within 56-42 on a three-pointer by Kam Jones and then 57-44 on a layup from Olivier-Maxence Prosper.
Elliott matched his college high of 17 points early in the second half and then reached 20 when he knocked down a three that closed the gap to 62-50. He finished with 22 on 7-for-12 shooting.
But MU could never climb out of that early hole.
MU finished 8 for 33 on three-pointers (24.2%), with Elliott draining 6 of 9. It was the fifth game the Golden Eagles have shot under 30% from deep this season. Justin Lewis was 0 for 7 from long range and Tyler Kolek continued his shooting slump by going 0 for 4 on triples. Kolek is 3 for 27 from behind the arc over his last six games.
“It seems like he’s rushing those shots,” Smart said. “He takes a lot of pride in his shooting because he works on his shooting more than anyone or as much as anyone that I’ve ever coached.
“That’s an area that we got to figure out how to help him be confident shooting the ball. Slow down a little bit, he just seems a little rushed. Part of it is when you’re playing against really, really good aggressive, athletic defenders you don’t have a lot of time to get it off. But he’s a lot better shooter than he’s shown these last several games.”
The Bruins also pulled down 17 offensive rebounds and scored 19 secondchance points. Struggling to secure defensive rebounds has been a seasonlong issue for MU.
“There was a couple where we weren’t where we needed to be,” Smart said. “But I think we were there and we even got our hands on a lot of them, but we did not corral them. We did not bring them in.
“We’ve got to do a better job of hitting the other player on a blockout and keeping him from getting it. And then going and grabbing the ball. That’s been an area throughout the season so far that we need to get better at.”
The Golden Eagles begin Big East competition Saturday against Xavier.
“The great thing is everyone starts league play 0-0,” Smart said. “You play everybody in the league twice. Once at home and once on the road. Our mentality better be to be, as we say, confident underdogs.”