Golden Eagles hold intrasquad scrimmage

After a couple weeks of practices, Marquette men's basketball coach Steve Wojciechowski got a look at how his team responded to game situations with an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday morning.

Before playing, the Golden Eagles came onto the court at Kasten Gym and went through a few drills, offensive sets and out-of-bounds plays. 

Then 20 minutes were put on the clock and the teams were divided into Andrew Rowsey, Markus Howard, Sacar Anim, Sam Hauser and Matt Heldt in gray jerseys and freshmen Greg Elliott, Jamal Cain, Ike Eke and Theo John were paired with Cam Marotta in blue jerseys.

John scored the first basket while getting fouled, setting the tone on a productive day for the physically imposing big man. 

Wojciechowski soon substituted Harry Froling into the mix and often switched players among the teams.

Haanif Cheatham is still rehabbing a shoulder injury and hasn't been cleared for contact. Transfer Ed Morrow did not play in the scrimmage.

"We’ve got to get a feel for what our best players look like together and what a rotation would look like," Wojciechowski said. "You want it to be competitive but guys have to know how to play with one another. And the guys who are new have to play with the guys who are going to play the most."

Wojciechowski didn't hesitate to praise John and said the freshman had his best day yet. 

"Defensively, he was a huge presence at the rim," the coach said. "I’m not sure how many rebounds he ended up with, I’ve got to imagine it’s close to double digits. And offensively, he kept it simple."

John scored most of his buckets in the paint but also sank both of the baseline jumpers he attempted.

“That’s gravy," Wojciechowski said. "He’s got to catch and finish and he’s got to offensive rebound. I thought he did a really good job of that. He was really fun to play with today for those guys."

The Golden Eagles also worked on crunch-time situations at the end of the scrimmage. 

Wojciechowski put three minutes on the clock and paired Rowsey, Howard, Hauser, Anim and John. 

"Those were the five best players today," Wojciechowski said.

That team was given a deficit of 70-62 and faced off against Marotta, Elliott, Cain, Froling and Heldt. 

Rowsey scored five quick points on free throws and a three-pointer to eat into the lead. Then John hit one of his baseline jumpers. 

After Froling hit a hook shot, Anim rocketed out of the corner and was fouled while hitting a layup. His free throw tied the score at 72.

Elliott then hit two free throws but Hauser sank a three from the corner to give his team the lead. 

John then made one of his defensive highlights, hedging on a screen and then scrambling back to make a block on Elliott at the rim with 36 seconds remaining.

On the other end, Rowsey penetrated and found the diving John with a nice pass for an easy layup and a 77-74 lead with 10 seconds remaining.

Wojciechowski then had Howard foul Marotta with Howard's team up three, something the coach said is generally his philosophy.

"It depends on personnel," Wojciechowski said. "Last year, would we have been better off defending the three or getting a free-throw rebound? We weren’t a very good free-throw rebounding team. We should be better this year.

"That’s what you do in practice, in game situations, you put guys in different positions to see if you can execute, which is what we did."

Marotta made one free throw and then missed the second, with Howard grabbing the rebound and getting fouled. He hit two free throws to put the final score at 79-75.