Notes: MU's plan against Patton pays off

Omaha, Neb. — Creighton 7-foot center Justin Patton has been a revelation during his freshman season after redshirting last year. He owns one of the highest shooting percentages in the nation on two-point shots at 74.0%, can step out and make three-pointers, runs the floor like a guard, possesses strong finishing skills off the dribble and the list goes on. There's reason to believe he could make the jump to the NBA after this season.

So it makes sense that Marquette entered Saturday's game at CenturyLink Center knowing the best way to handle Patton was to keep him off the court. The Golden Eagles did just that on the way to a 102-94 victory over the seventh-ranked Bluejays.

RELATED: MU 102, Creighton 94: Seniors lead Marquette's upset victory

Patton logged just 19 minutes, including only four in the first half, and finished with 11 points on 5 of 9 shooting. The key was getting him into foul trouble, which Marquette figured out how to do by watching film and executed perfectly on Saturday.

"That was part of our game plan," Marquette senior center Luke Fischer said. "He likes to jump at shots and we ball faked, we got him into early foul trouble and we were able to exploit their defense from there."

Fischer drew Patton's first foul during the first three minutes of the game while attacking the rim. At the 13:03 mark of the first half, redshirt junior Andrew Rowsey pump-faked on a corner three, which baited Patton into the air, then kicked out a pass instead of shooting. Later in the half Rowsey pulled off the same move, which he has done many times this season, this time against Creighton's Khyri Thomas. Rowsey let the second three-pointer fly, earning three free throws in the process.

Just over a minute into the second half, Fischer smartly got Patton to pick up a third foul after the Creighton freshman sat for the final 13 minutes of the first half. Fischer took a feed from Jajuan Johnson, pump faked to get Patton in the air and rose up for a layup plus the foul.

"Obviously people have watched him and they know what they can bait him into and they're doing a good job of doing that," Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. "He's young, he's going to make some mistakes. My challenge is to make sure he continues to grow and those mistakes don't happen as often in the next game as they did today."

Patton subbed out and over the next three minutes, Marquette pushed its lead to 15, forcing Patton back in. He picked up his fourth foul with 11:43 to go and while he didn't sit out long, his impact was severely limited.

Creighton misses Watson: Bluejays senior guard Maurice Watson Jr. was on hand at CenturyLink Center on Saturday afternoon wearing a full-leg cast on his left leg after tearing his ACL on Monday at Xavier. He received a standing ovation from the home crowd when he emerged from the tunnel and multiple hugs and well-wishes from players from both sides, including Marquette's Duane Wilson, Katin Reinhardt and Markus Howard, who went over to wish him well after the national anthem.

Golden Eagles head coach Steve Wojciechowski made a point to address Watson's injury, one that put a premature end to the star guard's collegiate career, by discussing Watson with his opening comments during his postgame press conference.

"First and foremost, again, my heart goes out Mo Watson," Wojciechowski said. "Seeing him before the game in the anthem line and then seeing him in the handshake line you never want a terrific player, competitor, their career to be ended with the unfortunate circumstances (like that). Obviously not having him changes their team, but they're still an outstanding team. I thought our guys really came ready to play, I thought we competed defensively and obviously played extraordinarily well together on the offensive end."

Watson's replacements at point guard, senior Isaiah Zierden who got the start and freshman Davion Mintz, played well offensively in Watson's absence. The two combined for 32 points and nine assists while committing just two turnovers. The difference for Creighton, though, came at the defensive end.

"We spent so much time this week trying to figure out what we were going to do offensively that we got away from who we are defensively and Marquette made us pay for that, McDermott said. "My concern is obviously defensively. You're putting guys in on the defensive end that aren't accustomed to being there as well. ... There were times today where we were exposed because Maurice wasn't on the floor."

Quotable: Here are some more thoughts from both sides following the game.

Wojciechowski on his three seniors

"I thought Luke was a rock for us on both ends of the floor, a terrific presence around the basket offensively and defensively. And then I thought Katin did a great job as a ball-handler and made really good decisions for our team. J.J. had a burst there in the second half where he allowed us to get some separation.”

Fischer on what he did better Saturday compared to other games in which he has struggled

"I think I was just more aggressive, I was just out there playing. I think in the past couple games I've been thinking too much about it and today it was just go out and play as hard as you can and good things will come from it."

McDermott on Marquette

"Well, Marquette was great today. They played very similar in the first half as they played at Butler when they got the 16-point lead. The difference was in the second half against Butler they didn't make their shots and today they made their shots in the second half. ... That's a really talented, skilled offensive team. They're as close to 6-1 (in the Big East) as they are to 4-3. They let one get away at Seton Hall and they had Butler down 18 and just didn't make shots in the second half."

Wojciechowski on Reinhardt's personal 10-0 run in the first half

"It was big. We talk a lot about end of half, start of half, end of games even though at times it may not seem like it. To be able to go to halftime with a 10-point cushion was big."

Tidbits: Marquette went 12 of 24 from three-point range, marking the 11th time in 19 games the Golden Eagles have made 10 or more three-pointers. ...

With Markus Howard limited to nine first-half minutes due to foul trouble, Rowsey scored 11 points on 3 of 3 shooting in his nine minutes in the first half. He didn't attempt another shot, playing five minutes in the second half. Howard played the other 15 second-half minutes, scoring nine of his 11 points during that time. ...

Creighton lived in the paint in the second half, scoring 28 of its 54 points there. ...

Marquette had 14 turnovers in the game with nine coming in the first half, but only allowed 13 points off turnovers.

Matt Velazquez can be reached at mvelazquez@journalsentinel.com and twitter.com/Matt_Velazquez.