[Cracked Sidewalks] Marquette wins .. whew!

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Marquette wins .. whew!

Written by: hilltopper91@gmail.com (Kevin Buckley (Hilltopper))

Marquette nipped Utah State 58-57 to advance to the .. Tremendous Thirty Two in this year's NCAA tournament.

Marquette had a comfortable 13 point lead after playing 17 minutes of the first half, and looked to be cruising to an easy victory, when our shots stopped falling and USU figured out how to score against our much quicker squad.

MU was outscored 39-32 in the 2nd half, and was down by 6 with 5 minutes to go, yet slowly chipped away, mostly with the help of USU fouling and putting MU on the line. -- Marquette hit 19-23 (83%) from the charity stripe, hitting 11 of 14 in the last 3 minutes to seal the game.

With a 4 point lead, USU was allowed to streak down the court and hit an open 3 to end the game, 58-57.

Lazar Hayward was the player of the game, shooting 9-14 with 26 points and 8 boards.  Jerel and Wes shot a dismal 6-26 combined, and collected most of their points from the FT line.

This game is very reminiscent of the MU vs. Holy Cross game in 2003, when 3rd seeded MU barely survived 72-68 versus #14 Holy Cross.    It took 29 points from Travis Diener, 6 in the last 35 seconds to eek out that win.

Who was Marquette's next opponent in 2003? .. Missouri, who Marquette could play again, this Sunday at 4:15pm, if Mizzou beats Cornell later today.

• ESPN Box Score

• Play by Play

• JS Online Recap

Whew!

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2009/03/marquette-wins-whew.html