Marquette Defeats Pittsburgh and Louisville

By Jackson | Posted Thursday, January 19

Marquette managed to defeat Pittsburgh over the weekend. What does that mean? The Golden Eagles stay up in the rankings, and now have a positive conference record. The battle against Pittsburgh was hard fought. For the second straight game, the team had to come from behind at the start of the second half of play. In both games, Marquette had to fight hard to defeat unranked (and crippled,) opponents.

As both teams headed to the locker room, Pittsburgh had built a five point lead. Something snapped during the half, because Marquette scored thirteen unanswered points, and putting the Panthers down by seven. The Panthers would rally twice to get within three points of Marquette, but they failed to get past the Golden Eagles.

Johnson-Odom and Crowder Step Up Against Pittsburgh

Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder both came up big in the final minutes. Crowder matched Ashton Gibbs free throw for free throw. Johnson-Odom baked up Crowder by scoring a pair of three pointers. Marquette went up by nine with under two minutes remaining. Two quick scores from Gibbs trimmed the Marquette lead to a single possession, but Pittsburgh couldn't capitalize. With less than twenty seconds remaining, Marquette's Davante Gardener was fouled during an offensive rebound. He hit both free throws, putting his team up by five.

Golden Eagles’ head coach Buzz Williams told reporters after the game that he was pleased with his team's performance. Although Johnson-Odom and Crowder were the clear game changers for his team, Williams liked seeing other players getting a chance at the basket. He hopes to build upon that theme, giving his team a few more weapons points-wise. The Panthers had beaten the Golden Eagles four of the past five meetings. The team went on to beat Louisville on 1/16, and it seems that the team is now on a roll. They play again at Providence on January 21