Marquette 71 Syracuse 76

Syracuse, N.Y. — Until Saturday, the Marquette Golden Eagles had done a respectable job of mitigating their complete lack of size.

That all changed against Syracuse, however.

Matched against an Orange team ranked No. 1 in the Ratings Percentage Index, No. 5 in the Associated Press' media poll and boasting one of the nation's best frontcourts, Marquette was bashed on the boards and pounded in the paint en route to dropping its second straight game, 76-71, in front of a crowd of 29,011 at the Carrier Dome.

Syracuse more than doubled up on MU in the rebounding department, 46-21, and rode a 56-22 advantage in paint scoring to a 58.5% shooting day (64.3% in the second half) as it improved to 4-0 against the Golden Eagles since they joined the Big East in the 2005-'06 season.

A strong push over the final 4 minutes got MU to within four points of the Orange with 8.8 seconds left. But it was too little, too late for the Golden Eagles (11-8, 2-5), who have lost five conference games by a total of 11 points - with four of those coming to teams ranked in the top eight.

“Too big,” said 6-foot-6, 215-pound Jimmy Butler, who spent most of his 37 minutes butting heads with the likes of 6-9, 261-pound Arinze Onuaku and 6-9, 240-pound Rick Jackson in the lane.

“I mean, I'm height-big, but I'm not going to say I'm weight-big. They were just big. You know they're big when they're giving Lazar Hayward problems down there. You can definitely tell when you've got two guys like that in the paint challenging your shots and having to guard them on the defensive end.

“It's really hard.”

Onuaku and Jackson combined for 24 points and 10 rebounds, with Jackson also swatting seven shots as they pushed their weight around down low. But it was Big East player of the year front-runner Wesley Johnson who made the biggest impact, putting up 22 points and 15 rebounds in 40 minutes as the Golden Eagles, like so many other teams, had no answer for his varied talents.

“You have to play him before the catch because he's so long he can do whatever he needs to do,” said coach Buzz Williams. “We did the best that we could, but Wesley was really good not only scoring, but also on the glass.”

Kris Joseph, checking in like Johnson at 6-7 and 205 pounds, came off the bench to chip in with 14 points and a career-high 11 rebounds for Syracuse (19-1, 6-1). MU got 17 points from Darius Johnson-Odom, 16 and eight rebounds from Hayward, 13 points from Butler and 12 from Maurice Acker.

Syracuse used a 16-3 run bridging the end of the first half and the start of the second to break the game open. Each of the Orange's baskets over that stretch came inside the paint as it began in earnest to exploit its huge size advantage.

Things looked as if they were on the verge of getting ugly when a 14-4 run made it 62-46 with 8 minutes, 33 seconds remaining. MU trailed by as many as 17 before making things interesting down the stretch.

Starting with two free throws by Butler, the Golden Eagles used a 15-4 run to pull to within 72-66 with 1:07 left. They had a chance to get even closer after Johnson missed a wide-open dunk, but Acker missed a wide-open layup on the other end.

Acker's three from the top of the key with 8.8 seconds remaining narrowed the gap to 75-71, but there just wasn't enough time for MU to get any closer. A free throw by Syracuse's Jackson with 7.7 seconds left capped the scoring.

Statistically speaking, MU shouldn't have even been in the game by halftime. Syracuse owned a 26-9 advantage on the boards, and the Golden Eagles didn't even attempt a free throw.

But they forced the Orange into 12 turnovers while committing just two themselves and knocked down six of 17 three-pointers to go into intermission tied at 34-34.

“We were thankful to be tied at half,” Williams said.

Syracuse wound up outscoring MU on the break, 25-10, while the Golden Eagles scored 25 points off 22 Orange turnovers. One bright spot defensively was the job MU did on gunner Andy Rautins, who went just 0 for 2 in 36 minutes.

Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim was impressed with MU. “The worst they should be is 4-3,” he said. “But that's just the way it is in this league. It's tough.”

Also noteworthy were the four minutes played by freshman guard Junior Cadougan, who saw his first action of the season after rupturing his right Achilles' tendon on Sept. 18. Cadougan wound up playing eight minutes, going scoreless with two rebounds, two assists and a turnover.

“First game back, great team in Syracuse - nothing better than that,” Cadougan said.

Official Basketball Box Score
Marquette vs Syracuse
1/23/10 2:04 p.m. at Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY

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VISITORS: Marquette (11-8) (2-5)
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
21 Fulce, Joseph....... f  1-5    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   4   2  0  0  0  2   9
32 Hayward, Lazar...... f  7-16   1-5    1-1    2  6  8   4  16  1  3  0  1  39
33 Butler, Jimmy....... f  4-9    1-1    4-5    2  4  6   4  13  1  1  0  0  37
02 Acker, Maurice...... g  4-8    4-5    0-0    0  0  0   2  12  6  1  0  0  32
10 Cubillan, David..... g  1-7    0-4    0-0    1  1  2   1   2  1  0  0  1  27
01 Johnson-Odom, Darius    5-14   3-6    4-7    1  0  1   1  17  2  2  0  1  32
05 Cadougan, Junior....    0-2    0-1    0-0    1  1  2   2   0  2  1  0  0   8
12 Williams, Erik......    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0  0+
23 Buycks, Dwight......    4-6    1-3    0-0    0  1  1   2   9  2  1  0  2  16
   TEAM................
   Totals..............   26-67  10-25   9-13   7 14 21  20  71 15  9  0  7 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-36 38.9%   2nd Half: 12-31 38.7%   Game: 38.8%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  6-17 35.3%   2nd Half:  4-8  50.0%   Game: 40.0%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  0-0   0.0%   2nd Half:  9-13 69.2%   Game: 69.2%    3


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HOME TEAM: Syracuse (19-1) (6-1)
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
00 JACKSON, Rick....... f  5-5    0-0    2-4    1  4  5   0  12  1  5  7  1  26
04 JOHNSON, Wes........ f  9-15   1-3    3-4    3 12 15   1  22  1  6  1  2  40
21 ONUAKU, Arinze...... c  6-7    0-0    0-0    2  3  5   4  12  2  2  0  0  18
01 RAUTINS, Andy....... g  0-2    0-2    0-0    0  1  1   2   0  6  4  1  3  36
25 DREW, Kevin......... g  3-5    0-2    1-1    0  2  2   0   7  5  1  0  0  27
11 HARRIS, Paul........    3-8    0-1    3-5    2  2  4   2   9  5  2  0  2  20
32 JOSEPH, Kris........    5-11   0-0    4-5    2  9 11   4  14  3  2  1  0  33
   TEAM................                         1  2  3
   Totals..............   31-53   1-8   13-19  11 35 46  13  76 23 22 10  8 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-25 52.0%   2nd Half: 18-28 64.3%   Game: 58.5%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  1-6  16.7%   2nd Half:  0-2   0.0%   Game: 12.5%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  7-10 70.0%   2nd Half:  6-9  66.7%   Game: 68.4%    3


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Officials: Jim Burr, Michael Stephens, James Breeding
Technical fouls: Marquette-None. Syracuse-None.
Attendance: 29011
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Marquette.....................   34   37  -   71
Syracuse......................   34   42  -   76

Points in the paint-MU 22,SYR 56. Points off turnovers-MU 24,SYR 6.
2nd chance points-MU 3,SYR 13. Fast break points-MU 10,SYR 25.
Bench points-MU 26,SYR 23. Score tied-2 times. Lead changed-5 times.
Last FG-MU 2nd-00:10, SYR 2nd-01:23.
Largest lead-MU by 7 1st-04:27, SYR by 17 2nd-04:16.