Marquette pulls off upset over No. 19 Butler
Markus Howard scored 17 points and Brendan Bailey added 16 to lead a balanced Marquette attack Sunday as the Golden Eagles dumped No. 19 Butler 76-57 in a Big East Conference contest at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
Koby McEwen chipped in 16 points for Marquette (17-6, 7-4), which jumped into a three-way for second place in the conference with Creighton and Villanova. It was the sixth win in seven games for the Golden Eagles, which hit 11 of 24 3-pointers and went 21 of 28 at the foul line.
Kamar Baldwin scored a game-high 23 points for the Bulldogs (18-6, 6-5) on 10-of16 shooting, while Bryce Nze added 14 on 6-of-9 shooting. But Butler's second-leading scorer, Sean McDermott, went 0 for 5 from the field and managed only two points in 34 minutes.
Leading by eight at halftime, Marquette pulled away with a 9-3 run shortly after the start of the second half. Howard pitched in four straight free throws when he was fouled on a loose ball scramble, followed by a technical on Butler coach LaVall Jordan.
The Bulldogs canned only 38.3 percent of their field goal attempts, including a miserable 4 of 20 on 3-pointers, and were outscored by 14 points at the charity stripe.
It took Marquette just 19 seconds to set a tone for the day's remainder, McEwen popping a 3-pointer to initiate scoring. While Butler owned a narrow lead for most of the first 10 minutes, the Golden Eagles took control shortly thereafter.
Howard gave them the lead for good at the 10-minute mark when he converted Bailey's offensive rebound into a 3-pointer. It started an 11-2 run that Bailey finished with a 3-ball for a 29-21 advantage at the 7:34 mark.
Marquette expanded the margin to 11 on Jayce Johnson's layup with 2:59 left. Although they didn't score for the half's remainder, the Golden Eagles still went into the locker room with a 34-26 lead, thanks in large part to limiting the Bulldogs to 37.5 percent shooting from the field.
--Field Level Media
