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James sparks No. 14 Marquette

Dec 1, 2007 - 5:43 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Marquette did not need long to shake off the effects of a nine-day layoff.

Dominic James scored a season-high 22 points to lead the 14th-ranked Golden Eagles to a 100-66 victory over city rival Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Friday night.

Lazar Hayward added 19 points as Marquette sent the Panthers (3-4) to their third straight defeat.

Bouncing back from a dismal 4-for-16 shooting effort in a 77-73 loss to Duke in the final of the Maui Invitational on November 21, James came out with a purpose against the Panthers.

The 5-11 junior guard scored 16 first-half points on 7-of-9 shooting to help the Golden Eagles (5-1) pull away to a 50-33 lead at the break. He finished 10-of-16 from the field.

"I'm proud of the way my team competed after a lot of time off," Marquette coach Tom Crean said. "You come from playing three games in three days to coming in and having to get ourselves ready to play a team that we think is a good basketball team.

"I think the highlight of the night for me to look at the stats sheet is the fact that we had 26 assists and seven turnovers."

Wesley Matthews and James hit 3-pointers in an 11-1 run as the Golden Eagles opened a 29-18 lead with just under nine minutes left in the first half.

After the Panthers closed the gap to 35-30, Hayward, Jerel McNeal and David Cubillan hit consecutive 3-pointers to cap a 13-0 run and push the lead to 48-30 with 1:47 left in the opening half.

"We're just such a deep team," McNeal said. "We were just putting in so many different combinations, we had three or four guards on the court at one time, or we'd use a big lineup with two guards and other key post players.

"Definitely one of the keys to our success is the fact that we've been able to get at people and be aggressive the entire game and use a full-court the entire time."

Marquette quickly doused any hopes of a comeback by Wisconsin-Milwaukee, as James scored four points in a 10-2 run to open the second half that ballooned the margin to 60-35.

"They are a very good basketball team and eventually they will wear you down," Panthers coach Rob Jeter said. "We tried to just try and keep them off balance."

McNeal and Cubillan also were in double figures with 16 and 12 points, respectively, for the Golden Eagles, who shot 40-of-74 (54 percent) from the floor.

Ricky Franklin scored 12 points and Deion James added 10 on 4-of-5 shooting for Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"They probably didn't have me on the scouting report," James said. "They might not have known about me."