• Recap
• Bleachers

Lamb helps Huskies down Marquette

Jan 26, 2011 - 8:39 AM Milwaukee, WI (Sports Network) - Jeremy Lamb led the way with 24 points as No. 5 Connecticut pulled away late to defeat Marquette, 76-68, at Bradley Center.

Kemba Walker chipped in with 14 points and nine assists as the Huskies (17-2, 5-2 Big East) claimed victory for the sixth straight game. Roscoe Smith added 11 points and eight rebounds in the win.

Jimmy Butler had 21 points and eight rebounds to lead the Golden Eagles (13-8, 4-4), who have now lost two straight and three of their last four. Darius Johnson-Odom tallied 18 points, Dwight Buycks had 13 points and Jae Crowder notched 10 points and nine rebounds in the loss.

Johnson-Odom's trey opened the second half to cut into a seven-point Golden Eagles' deficit. Then Buycks hit a fast break trey to get them within one, 38-37.

A few minutes later, Butler's jumper tied the game at 43 and UConn responded with a Jamal Coombs-McDaniel trifecta to regain the lead.

The Huskies scored five straight points, but the Golden Eagles answered back with a six-point spurt finished with Butler's fastbreak jump shot to take a 49-48 lead with 13 minutes left.

Nearly six minutes later when the teams were knotted at 60, UConn used an 8-0 run to knock out the home team.

Walker capped the run with a jumper and Marquette could not mount a comeback. UConn iced the game by making six straight free throws.

Marquette, so close to knocking off the No. 5 team in the country, let its defense lapse at the end.

"We're not guarding the way we're supposed to," said Butler. "We're just worried about making shots a lot of the time and we're giving up easy baskets on the defensive end.

"We say we learn from it, but we go out and do the exact same thing over and over again."

Approaching the midway point of the first half Davante Gardner's tip in gave Marquette a 21-16 edge, but with 9 1/2 minutes left Lamb's three shots from the charity stripe knotted the game at 21.

The Huskies then took the lead the next possession thanks to a Smith's dunk and they held onto a 38-31 lead at the break.

Game Notes

The all-time series between the two schools is knotted at 3-3...Butler scored his 1,000th point, joining 42 other Marquette players...UConn shot 43.8 percent from the field, while Marquette made 41.7 of its shots...The Huskies shot 93 percent from the stripe (14-of-15).