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Marquette breaks out in rout of Detroit

Nov 15, 2006 - 3:18 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Marquette finally overcame its rank play and played like a ranked team.

Dominic James scored 20 points as the 17th-ranked Golden Eagles broke out of their early-season funk with an 87-45 thrashing of Detroit in the second round of the CBE Classic.

Marquette had labored through its first two games, having to rally from four points down to defeat Division II Hillsdale College in its season opener and barely squeaking past Idaho State in overtime on Monday in the first round of this tournament.

The Golden Eagles (3-0) had no such problems on Tuesday, running out to leads of 18-8 and 25-11.

"We had great confidence today that we'd come out with great passion and a lot of enthusiasm and energy," Marquette coach Tom Crean said. "We played a good team today. Detroit will be a force in the Horizon League."

Wesley Matthews scorer 11 of the first 18 points, including three 3-pointers, as the Golden Eagles bounced back from a dismal 29 percent shooting performance the previous night.

James, last season's Big East Rookie of the Year, and Matthews each had 11 points in the first half as Marquette shot a torrid 62 percent (18-of-29) from the field in taking a 46-22 lead at intermission. The Golden Eagles were 6-of-12 from the arc.

Detroit (1-1) was unable to keep pace despite shooting 57 percent (8-of-14) in the first half.

"We moved the ball very well tonight, got a lot of open shots and played well as a team tonight," James said. "The flow we got into in transition got us into the flow offensively. A lot of our points came from the transition and were started with our defense. We did a great job getting turnovers and turning them into points."

Marquette got a nice spark from Lazar Hayward, who had nine of his 14 points in the opening half. He also collected four steals.

"We knew as a staff we were going to go with (Lazar) early," Crean said. "I looked at the film last night and I wish we had played him more. Amazing thing is that he had the steals tonight. He has a scorer's mentality and our team needs that. He's trying to get into a shape these other guys have been in for a while."

The Titans never could cut into the lead in the second half and Marquette used a 13-0 run to more than double the lead at 73-36 with just under six minutes left.

"We have to continue to build on where we left off and work together and create for each other," James said. "It shows how good of a team we can be. We need to keep learning and listening to coach to get better."

Matthews finished with 15 points and added eight rebounds for the Golden Eagles, who shot 56 percent (32-of-57).

"We were focusing more tonight than last night, which was mainly a mental thing," Matthews said. "We wanted to be more confident and were able to knock down the shots we wanted to."

Ryvon Covile scored 15 points and Brandon Cotton added 11 for Detroit, which shot 32 percent in the second half and 40 percent (17-of-42) for the game.