MU Rallies in Second Half to Beat Pitt 62-57

Marquette's game Saturday against Pitt was once again a tale of two different halves. The first half went to Pittsburgh and their preseason Big East player of the year, Ashton Gibbs. Gibbs led the Panthers to a five point lead at the half with his combination of 3 point shooting and drives to the basket. He looked determined to end Pitt's losing streak by himself.


The second half brought out Marquette's defensive pressure to regain the lead and eventually secure the victory. MU's half court trap caused four consecutive turnovers during a string of eight straight stops that turned the game in their favor. Pitt's ball handling is suspect right now with their talented point guard sitting on the bench due to an injury. Buzz's boys took advantage of this weakness to gain the lead.

Offensively DJO and Jae Crowder were the top scorers as usual with Junior Cadougan adding nine assists to do his part in the second half turnaround. Todd Mayo and Jamil Wilson were the only bench players to get in the game and both played solid minutes helping MU to the 62-57 victory.

In Buzz William's post game comments he praised freshman Todd Mayo's defensive contribution in taking on guarding Gibbs. On this day no one was going to stop Gibbs but Mayo played tough man-to-man defense which slowed him down. Even with the solid defense Gibbs scored 29 of Pitt's 57 points and kept Pitt in the game until the last minute.

Next up for MU is the Louisville team and one of our favorite opposing coaches, Slick Rick Pitino. The game is part of ESPN's Martin Luther King Day's lineup. With the day being a holiday tip off at the Bradley Center is 2:30PM CST so if you have to work set your DVR.

GO Warriors!!