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Marquette cruises over BYU

Mar 16, 2012 - 3:04 AM Louisville, KY (Sports Network) - BYU's brief tournament run came to an end on Thursday, as Marquette claimed an 88-68 victory in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Cougars shocked many by recovering from a 25-point first-half deficit to beat Iona on Tuesday, but found that advancing without Jimmer Fredette is more difficult while facing better competition.

Jae Crowder led all players with 25 points and 16 rebounds, while Darius Johnson-Odom tallied 20 points for the Golden Eagles (26-7), who advance to face Murray State in the third round of the West region on Saturday.

"We're fortunate that we're able to continue to play, and it's been a long time since I've played an NCAA Tournament game on the road, but we'll figure out how to do that between now and Saturday," said Marquette head coach Buzz Williams. "I think BYU is a really good team. I think their frontcourt causes a lot of problems."

Brandon Davies turned in 19 points and 12 boards for the Cougars (26-9), who received 15 points from Noah Hartsock and 12 points from Craig Cusick in defeat.

BYU made its case for a second straight comeback victory early in the second half. It began on a 14-3 run which pulled it within 52-46 after just over 4 1/2 minutes elapsed.

Davies scored six points in the streak, Cusick drained a trey and Charles Abouo connected from long distance to end the burst.

But the Golden Eagles pulled away from there. Vander Blue and Johnson-Odom sank quick buckets to push their edge back into double digits, and though back-to-back shots from Hartsock made it a 60-52 game moments later, an 11-4 run by Marquette put the game out of reach.

Crowder's layup with 9:08 to go provided a 71-56 margin, and BYU's deficit remained in double digits for the remainder of the game.

Marquette was in control from the early stages, racing out to an 18-5 lead in the first five-plus minutes. Johnson-Odom and Junior Cadougan got things started with back-to-back triples, Crowder added one of his own and ended the burst with a layup and a slam.

The Golden Eagles stretched the advantage to 35-17 on two from the line by Todd Mayo with 7:45 left in the first half, but the Cougars were only able to shrink that by three as a Cadougan layup made it 49-34 Marquette at the break.

"It's always frustrating. You always want to be out there to help your team. Just made some foolish errors on my part," said Hartsock, who had to watch from the bench after getting into early foul trouble. "It's tough being on the bench and watching your team play. You just got to do your best to cheer them on."

Game Notes

Crowder also led the way with four steals...This is the first NCAA tourney meeting between the schools, and the first overall matchup since 1966-67...Marquette owned a 48-34 advantage on the boards...Cusick went 3-of-5 from long distance, part of BYU's 7-of-19 performance from beyond the arc...The Cougars shot just 37.7 percent from the floor, to 45.5 percent for Marquette.