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Marquette guards too much for Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Nov 23, 2008 - 5:40 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Wesley Matthews scored 25 points and Lazar Hayward had a career-high 25 and 10 rebounds as No. 17 Marquette continued its dominance over Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a 100-80 triumph on Saturday.

Jerel McNeal had 22 points and five steals and Dominic James added 16 and eight assists for the Golden Eagles (3-0), who have won all 36 meetings between the two schools which are separated by four miles.

The winning streak is the second-longest active stretch against one opponent - Syracuse has beaten Colgate 42 straight times.

"It's the best game that I have seen from Dominic James," first-year coach Buzz Williams said. "I thought that he ran the team with great poise, while at the same time always engaging his defender every single possession.

"I think that when he plays like that and Wes continues to play the way that he has been playing, I think that changes the culture or the dynamics of our team."

Marquette led by five at the break and scored the first 10 points after intermission to take a 55-40 lead with 18:12 remaining.

Patrick Hazel's putback of his own miss capped a 12-3 run as the Golden Eagles extended their lead to 67-48 with 13:52 remaining, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee failed to come closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

"In the second half, I think we had 37 points in the paint," Williams said. "The thing is that number is skewed with how we talk about the paint touches. I am not so concerned with how many points we score in the paint as I am with about how many possessions during the game that the ball touches the paint - prior to a shot.

"I thought we executed a lot better in regards to the number of paint touches compared to our number of possessions."

It was the third straight game of at least 25 points for Matthews, who scored a career-high 27 in Marquette's season-opening win against Houston Baptist. The senior shot 8-of-16 from the floor and 9-of-10 from the foul line.

Marquette jumped out to a 9-2 lead but Wisconsin-Milwaukee came right back and the contest was close throughout the first half.

Jason Averkamp's three-point play with 6:08 left gave the Panthers a 36-33 lead but the Golden Eagles closed strong, taking a 45-40 advantage into the locker room as Hayward had five points down the stretch.

Freshman Tone Boyle scored 23 points and Avery Smith had 22 for the Panthers (3-2), who shot 38 percent (25-of-66) from the field.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee had 15 turnovers and Marquette scored 26 points in transition.

"While it may not seem like it at the time, a lot of our baskets are created by our defense and I think that when we are getting defensive stops and when we are getting first shot rebounds we are one of the hardest team in the nation to guard," McNeal said.

"Once we get stops defensively we are getting ourselves an opportunity at the other end, very quickly."