Howard, Marquette topple No. 19 Butler
Marquette 76, No. 19 Butler 57: Butler contained Markus Howard, the nation’s leading scorer, but Marquette’s supporting cast answered the challenge.
Howard, who entered averaging 27.9 points, scored 17 and Brendan Bailey and Koby McEwen added 16 apiece to lead host Marquette (17-6, 7-4 Big East) to a victory over Butler (18-6, 6-5) on Sunday.
“They’re a tough assignment in general,” Butler coach LaVall Jordan said. “Obviously you start with Markus Howard, so how much attention do you want to give him in terms of helping, allow him to just play and keep the other guys contained? I thought we did a job on him. Recoveries to some of the shooters were slow.”
Marquette put the game away when McEwen hit back-to-back 3 pointers and Bailey followed with another to give the Golden Eagles a 62-45 lead with 6:09 remaining. “It’s always fun to play with a player like Markus,” said Bailey, who had a game-high eight rebounds. “He’s the best scorer in the country, and teams know that. So, they’re going to focus their defense around Markus. That’s when everybody else has to step up. When someone’s open, we know we’re going to get the ball and we’ve got to be ready to shoot.”
No. 25 Houston 76, Wichita State 43: Quentin Grimes had 14 points and six rebounds, DeJon Jarreau added 12 points and seven rebounds, and host Houston (19-5, 9-2 American Athletic Conference) beat Wichita State (17-6, 5-5).
Marcus Sasser and Caleb Mills each scored 11 points, and Nate Hinton had 10 points and nine rebounds for Houston. The Cougars have won seven of eight and took over sole possession of first place in the AAC.
Women’s Top 10
Syracuse 59, No. 5 Louisville 51: Kiara Lewis scored 24 points, and host Syracuse (12-11, 6-6 ACC) shut down Louisville (21-3 10-2) on Sunday.
No. 6 Stanford 79, USC 59: Lexie Hull had 16 points and nine rebounds, Nadia Fingall and Ashten Prechtel each scored 11 points and host Stanford (21-3, 10-2 Pac-12) overpowered USC (12-11, 4-8).
No. 8 Mississippi State 69, No. 16 Texas A&M 57: Myah Taylor scored 16 points in the final 12 minutes to lead host Mississippi State back from a doubledigit deficit to a victory over Texas A&M.
No. 10 UCLA 74, California 70: Michaela Onyenwere hit a go-ahead jumper in the paint with 25.7 seconds left and scored seven of her 22 points in overtime, and UCLA (21-2, 10-2 Pac-12) held off ahost California (9-14, 1-11).