Marquette 74, UW 69 (OT): Golden Eagles win tense battle
The first Marquettte-Wisconsin game at Fiserv Forum was a tense battle befitting the state's biggest college basketball rivalry.
The Golden Eagles were able to make a number of clutch plays and take advantage of the Badgers' poor free-throw shooting for a 74-69 victory in overtime Saturday.
MU (8-2) trails UW (8-2) in the series, 67-58. The road team had won the last four matchups.
RELATED:UW will rue its inability to make critical plays late in OT
BOX SCORE:Marquette 74, Wisconsin 69
REPLAY:Review our live blog of Saturday's MU-UW game
After MU held on for the home victory despite some free-throw struggles in overtime (7 for 14), junior guard Markus Howard let out a primal scream.
"All the emotion, all the build-up, kind of bottled up," Howard said. "Then it was kind of being let out.
"This is definitely a big game for us. Each and every year people always talk about how big this game is. You try to block out the outside noise and really try to be internal within our program about how important this game was."
Junior big man Ed Morrow Jr. and freshman forward Joey Hauser were both playing in their first MU-UW game and each made plays critical to the victory.
Morrow, a transfer from Nebraska, made a huge block on UW star Ethan Happ with 35 seconds left in regulation and the game tied at 61.
Happ had given MU's defense fits the whole game and finished with a collegiate-high 34 points and 11 rebounds. He seemed to have an easy layup before Morrow swooped in and swatted the shot out of bounds.
"That was a huge play," MU coach Steve Wojciechowski said. "That was going to be two points because Happ is too good. That was a great, great play."
MU then forced a UW turnover, but Howard missed a shot in the paint in the waning seconds of regulation.
Morrow also made the biggest basket of overtime after corralling an offensive rebound and getting a shot up despite a crowd of UW defenders.
It's been a slow start to the season for Morrow but he is beginning to live up to his reputation as a rim protector and rebounder.
"Ed's had to go through a lot, with transferring and sitting out a year," Howard said. "He handled it really well. Each and every day he's getting better.
"You guys are starting to see where the hard work is paying off. Truly I'm honored to have him on our team and he really stepped up for us today."
Hauser hit what was probably the biggest shot of regulation when he nailed a three-pointer off an out-of-bounds set that gave MU a 59-57 lead with 3:25 left.
The freshman continued his beyond-his-years play by hitting the opening basket of overtime and then sinking two free throws that gave the Golden Eagles a 67-63 lead.
"I was extremely comfortable out there," said Hauser, who finished with 15 points. "My teammates helped me out in staying poised and calm.
"Staying calm, cool and collected was kind of our M.O. the whole game."
The clutch plays by Morrow and Hauser augmented the efforts from usual MU stars Howard (27 points) and junior forward Sam Hauser (13 points, 14 rebounds).
Howard shot 12 for 15 from the free-throw line to help offset a 7-for-29 performance from the floor.
The Badgers were brutal from the charity stripe, finishing 10 for 21. Sophomore guards D'Mitrik Trice and Brad Davison, usually reliable from the line, combined for 3 of 8 shooting.
"It happens," UW coach Greg Gard said. "You have two almost 90 percent free-throw shooters there and we leave five points on the table.
"We have to be able to overcome that. You don't want it to happen."
UW also finished 5 for 24 on three-pointers. Trice, who came into the game shooting 60% from deep, was 1 for 6.
"I thought we had some good ones," Gard said. "And we had the right shooters, for the most part, taking them. You have to be able to find other ways to survive days like that, when that ball doesn't go in."
Happ carried the load for UW on offense, shooting 16 for 21.
"There's only so much you can do with that guy," Sam Hauser said. "He's an All-American for a reason. He's a great player.
"He's going to get his, you've just got to limit the other guys around him."
In a stretch of seven days, MU has victories over Kansas State, which was ranked No. 10 in the USA Today coaches poll on Dec. 1, and now UW, which checked in at 16th in the coaches poll and No. 12 in the Associated Press rankings.
The Golden Eagles have come a long way from a 96-73 loss at Indiana on Nov. 14.
"We've crossed a couple bridges these last few games," Sam Hauser said. "And now we just have to keep building off it and keep building our résumé."