The second year of the Big East-St. Thomas challenge took the University of St. Thomas to Milwaukee to face another top 10 team in their home court. Also for the second straight year, it took a whole game to put away the pesky Tommies. Coming into the game as the third slowest pace team in America, the Tommies honorably went toe to toe with a giant of College Hoops.
Marquette came out hot from the starting line going 6-7, while UST went 0-3 to start the game from deep. Marquette in the paint made scoring look easy early. It took less than 4 minutes for all of the Marquette starters to get a bucket. Marquette was equally effective on defense, and routinely forced UST into less than desirable shots at the shot clock buzzer. UST’s first three point bucket from Milwaukee Area Native Ben Nau made it a one possession game, Shaka was letting UST attempt buckets from the corners.
A half-full Fiserv Forum was silence after UST took advantage of a 4.5 minute Marquette Scoring drought to take a slight lead at the second media timeout, coming off huge three pointers by Carter Bjerke and Ben Nau. UST’s defense over the middle part of the first half improved significantly, with Tyler Kolek of Marquette clearly frustrated by Drake Dobbs persistent pressure. UST’s 8-0 run to take a lead was ended decisively by Marquette out of the timeout going on a 10-0 run forcing JT to take his first timeout. Marquette largely allowed UST to get open opportunities in the corner from deep, opportunities they largely missed. They went into halftime down 12, going 5-17 from deep.
Raheem Anthony in the second half came out with some fury, scoring 5 by himself to open the half. UST then starting hitting the open corner threes that Marquette was allowing in the first half, going on a 9-0 over two minutes to cut the lead to 4 with 13 minutes remaining. Ben Nau and Carter Bjerke have been elite scorers recently, and showed up at the right time as Marquette’s scoring slowed down. Parker Bjorklund was kept off the scoreboard until he drained a 3 pointer with 5 minutes to go, starting a series of three straight scoring drives for UST. What followed was a Ben Nau three pointer, a flagrant foul against Parker where he drained both, and followed it up with another three pointer to make it a one point game, and then another field goal. Ten points in 3 minutes for PB5.
With 1:20 to go Drake Dobbs hit a routine mid ranger to make cut the lead to 2. Marquette made two FTs to extend the lead to four. Marquette tried to suck out the clock and Kam Jones with 3 seconds on the shot clock was called for an offensive foul. Marquette’s full court press led to a UST turnover at an inopportune time with 15 seconds remaining. UST late cut it to a three point game 79-82 with 10 seconds on a Brooks Allen three pointer. A couple free throws for Marquette put it away 79-84.