Butler roughs up Marquette in Milwaukee

The Butler Bulldogs finished off a season sweep of the Marquette Golden Eagles in dominant fashion on Wednesday night. The ‘Dawgs took it to the Golden Eagles at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, routing them 92-72.

Butler dished out a furious offensive attack in the first half. They scored 43 points and shot 58.1 percent from the floor, 50.0 percent from the 3-point line on eight attempts, and 75.0 percent from the free throw line on their four FT attempts. Seven players scored at least two points, four posted at least six and three dropped at least eight.

Tyler Wideman was the leading scorer at the break, as Wideman put up 14 points while shooting 6-of-7 from the field and 2-of-2 from the line. Wideman also had six boards and one turnover in 13 minutes of action. Kelan Martin had eight points and four boards at the break whilst shooting 50.0 percent on six attempts. Kamar Baldwin matched that percentage, going 4-of-8 from the field and 1-of-2 from the line for a cool nine points.

Marquette certainly took their lumps in the first half, which ultimately led to their demise. The usually potent Golden Eagles offense shot just 34.8 percent from the floor and 20.0 percent form the 3-point line. This while shooting 83.3 percent on their 12 FT attempts. Unfortunately, their lack of scoring from the floor made that nearly impeccable FT% null and void, essentially. Markus Howard led the way with 14 points at the half, but nobody else had more than four.

The second half didn’t fare much better for MU. The Golden Eagles shot a woeful 41.7 percent through the first 10 minutes of the second half and 33.3 percent from deep. Butler remained torrid in their efforts to knock MU off, shooting 53.8 percent from the field, 60.0 percent from deep and 81.8 percent from the free throw line in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Golden Eagles finished with a mark of 55.2 percent and 37.5 percent from 3-point land by the end of the half, but by then, it was too little, too late.

Butler, on the other hand, finished the second half shooting 62.5 percent from the floor, 66.7 percent from long range and 83.3 percent from the free throw line on 18 attempts.

The aforementioned Tyler Wideman put up a career-high 23 points in the victory. He was one of five players in double figures, as Kelan Martin posted 16, Kamar Baldwin finished with 15, Aaron Thompson put up 11 and Sean McDermott had 13 with a perfect night from the field of 3-of-3 and 4-of-4 from the free throw line.

Markus Howard finished with a game-high 26 points in the loss. Sacar Anim ended the night with 15 points, Sam Hauser had 10 and Greg Elliott had 10 as well.

The victory for BU props them up to 6-4 in conference play and 16-7 on the year. By trade, the loss for Marquette drops them down to 4-6 in conference play and 13-9 n the season. These two teams certainly appear to be forging different paths at this point in the season, with the Golden Eagles now mired in a three-game losing streak, while the ‘Dawgs are basking in a three-game win streak, and a run of 4-1 in their last five.

For a team like Butler, who’d only been averaging 76.6 points in Big East road games this year, to put up 92 points has to boost their confidence. They have some stiff road tests coming up, namely in Philly against the Villanova Wildcats on February 10, so we’ll see how they can spin this performance.