Marquette beats Georgetown, I was there

We went to the Marquette/Georgetown game last night and were rewarded with the Golden Eagles finally managing to pull out a close game against a ranked opponent.

Marquette was picked in the preseason to finish 12th in the Big East, so the fact that they were even in these games was a bit of a win, but really, there’s nothing to make you feel good about losing out on two big upsets by a total of three points.

The game was fun to be at – the crowd was jazzed and the university had done a good job of getting tickets sold despite the fact that school is on winter break.

The big winner from last night’s game was David Cubillan. Those of us who have watched Marquette over the past few seasons know that Cubi can either be very hot or very cold and there doesn’t seem to be an in between. He’s a shorter guy who can be deadly from beyond the three point arc but who can frustrate when he’s cold from back there and spends the whole game putting up bricks.

But Cubi’s impressive 6-for-6 from three point land led the Golden Eagles and kept them in the game when they were unable to get penetration or points in the paint.

Georgetown’s zone defense had Marquette puzzled. Georgetown is a rather tall team and they had a considerable size advantage on the Golden Eagles. Marquette’s lack of size made it impossible for them to get under the hoop and allowed Georgetown to outscore Marquette 32-6 in the paint. However, despite the size disadvantage, the Golden Eagles out-rebounded the Hoyas 31-28.

From the Washington Post’s coverage of the game:
“…with a dazzling display of long-range shooting…For the Hoyas, it was death by a thousand three-pointers with five Marquette players combining to hit 12 shots from beyond the arc.

The star among them was David Cubillan, who was 6 for 6 from three-point range while muzzling Georgetown’s most potent scorer, Chris Wright, on defense.”

Sadly for Georgetown, in the post-game news conference junior Austin Freeman said the Hoyas’ game plan was to stop Marquette from shooting the three.

Not only did the Golden Eagles take 26 threes, but they made 12 of them.

Though his effort don’t show up in terms of points, assists or rebounds, the other hero of the night was Lazar Hayward, whose defense of Greg Monroe was as much a difference in the game as Cubillan’s threes. Monroe was only able to muster 10 points while turning the ball over 4 times.

The atmosphere inside the Bradley Center was some of the best I’ve experienced in person. Early on it was obvious this was going to be another close fight. With every made three, the fans got louder and more pumped.