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For the first ten minutes of Tuesday night's game, the Marquette Golden Eagles looked like they were going to comfortably roll to their sixth straight win, in blowout fashion.
With 10:02 left in the first half, the Golden Eagles led the San Jose State Spartans 31-7. Marquette was well on their way to their second straight 100+ point game.
Then, for the remainder of the half, the hot shooting Golden Eagles went cold. By the half, San Jose State was within single digits, with Marquette only up 40-31.
The cold shooting and sluggish play continued in the first ten minutes of the second half, as the Spartans seemed to be within 8-10 points for the entire first ten minutes. Of course, Marquette still led, but they were having trouble putting the Spartans away.
With eight minutes to play, the Golden Eagles began a 15-5 run, spanning nearly five minutes. By the time the run ended, they were in firm control of the game, winning by a 80-62 margin.
We have preached the merits of Henry Ellenson and Luke Fischer all season. We'll get back to those two in a moment, but tonight's frontcourt star was Sandy Cohen III.
Cohen had 24 points thanks to six threes. His career high coming into this game was 12, which he broke in the first ten minutes of the game. He was a big part of Marquette's lead out of the gates.
Back to Ellenson and Fischer. Henry Ellenson finished with 20 points and eight rebounds, while Luke Fischer finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
For San Jose State, guard Princeton Onwas led the squad in scoring with 15 points. He also hauled in seven rebounds and recorded two steals, but turned the ball over eight times.
The Spartans shot 37%. The Golden Eagles shot 39%. It was a particularly ugly affair.
Marquette (7-2) faces the Wisconsin Badgers in their next game. Wisconsin is drastically undersized. The Golden Eagles should look to ride their frontcourt to glory. We will have much more coverage of this game in the days leading up to it.