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James, Marquette use big first half to crush Savannah State

Dec 30, 2007 - 4:08 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Dominic James and No. 13 Marquette appear ready for conference play.

James scored 12 points and the Golden Eagles used a balanced attack to notch a 77-37 victory over Savannah State on Saturday.

Lazar Hayward also scored 12 points for Marquette, which jumped out to a 46-19 lead after 20 minutes and was in complete control the rest of the way.

Marquette held Savannah State to just 25 percent (14-of-55) shooting from the floor and dominated the backboards, 46-28. Curtis Brown scored nine points for the Tigers, who trailed by double digits the entire game.

It was such a laugher that James, the Golden Eagles' top scorer, was pulled from the game with 10:00 left and the score 63-26.

Marquette (10-1), which has won six straight, opens its Big East Conference schedule against Providence on January 3.

Coming off an 89-42 win over Coppin State on December 21, the Golden Eagles expected to have little trouble with Savannah State (7-11), which fell to just 1-8 on the road.

Marquette hit half of its 3-pointers (8-of-16) and have now won its last four games by an average of 35.5 points.

About the only thing that went right for the Tigers was that Patrick Hardy hit a 3-pointer to open the game. After that it was all downhill.

The Golden Eagles used runs of 13-0, 8-0 and 17-0 to break it open.

Maurice Acker capped the 17-0 run with a shot from the arc that made the score 36-11 with 7:17 left in the first half.

Savannah State then opened the second half by misfiring on 10 of its first 13 attempts.