The Marquette Golden Eagles topped Western Carolina last night 94-77 on the strength of a career-high 27 points from Lazar Hayward. Jerel McNeal contributed 19 points and Wesley Matthews added 18. The game was never in doubt as MU raced out to an 11-1 lead and cruised to a 53-27 halftime lead.
Nevertheless the night's most significant development was the season debut of both Chris Otule and Joseph Fulce. Otule played 11 minutes winding up with three points, all from the free throw line. Joseph Fulce also saw 11 minutes of action, chipping in a bucket and four boards. With less than two weeks to go before the conference opener, a healthy roster is a welcome development for the program. Talk about it on MUScoop.
Next up for Marquette -- a visit to North Carolina State on Monday night.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
MU blasts WCU, Otule and Fulce see first action of the season
Friday, December 19, 2008
MU returns to Cupcake City
It's a Marshmallow World in Milwaukee today and Marquette (8-2) hosts another resident of Cupcake City, the Western Carolina Catamounts. Despite the heavy snow, tipoff remains scheduled for 7:30pm tonight at the Bradley Center.
After falling to Tennessee in a high-profile out-of-conference matchup and with a road game at NC State early next week, WCU has the makings of a classic trap game for Marquette. WCU (5-3) has played a difficult schedule in the early going this season, getting rolled at UConn but topping a series of respectable programs like Kent State, Louisiana Tech and Northern Illinois.
6'8" junior Jake Robinson paces WCU at 15 points and 5 boards per outing. Robinson is a gunner, leading the high-scoring Catamounts in three-pointers made and attempted while hitting nearly 38% from deep. 6'6" guard Brandon Giles chips in 14 points and 3 boards, while 6'4" guard Harouna Mutombo delivers 12 points and five boards. WCU is coached by Larry Hunter, one of the winningest active coaches in the country, who will go for win number 549 tonight.
Here's Rosiak's blog preview
Here's the Scout.com preview
Official MU game notes
(BTW, the Phil Spector Christmas Album remains one of the best)
