No. 9 Marquette gets strong second half to knock off Butler

Kam Jones scored 23 along with seven boards and five assists to lead No. 9 Marquette to an 80-70 win over Butler to begin Big East Conference play, handing Butler its fourth consecutive loss.

The Golden Eagles (10-2) also got 15 points from both David Joplin and Stevie Mitchell, who also led the team with nine rebounds.

Jahmyl Telfort and Kolby King each had 16 points for the Bulldogs (7-5), and Telfort added 10 boards.

Butler started strong, hitting three of its first five shots from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs went on to lead for much of the half.

Marquette grabbed the lead for the first time with 4:29 left in the half, but Butler took it right back and led 35-32 at the halftime break.

The Golden Eagles struggled primarily from deep in the half, making just 2 of 15 of their 3-point attempts. They shot just 33 percent from the field.

Marquette turned it around to start the second, rattling off an 8-0 run to take a 40-35 edge.

In the half, Marquette shot just over 51 percent from the floor, despite still struggling from deep going 4-for-15. They scored 14 points off of turnovers on the game while only committing two turnovers.

Another 6-0 run for Marquette prompted Butler to call a timeout with 5:29 to go with the Golden Eagles up 66-54. Jones hit a deep 3-pointer after shrugging off a hard foul.

Butler made it interesting until the end, going on an 8-1 run to bring its deficit down to six with 1:51 to go. Coming out of a Marquette timeout, Mitchell finished a layup with a foul and Chase Ross threw down a thunderous dunk to put the game to bed.

--Field Level Media