Tyler Kolek, No. 4 Marquette turn back pesky Butler

Tyler Kolek scored 27 points and Oso Ighodaro added 17 to lead No. 4 Marquette to a 78-72 road win against Butler on Tuesday night in Indianapolis.

Kolek, the reigning Big East Player of the Week, also dished five assists and grabbed seven boards. Ighodaro finished with a double-double with 10 rebounds as Marquette won its eighth straight contest.

Freshman Finley Bizjack surprised off the bench, leading Butler with a career-high 19 points. Pierre Brooks II added 15, Jahmyl Telfort posted 12 and Jalen Thomas had 11.

Butler failed to sweep Marquette for the first time since the 2017-18 season after its upset victory in Milwaukee earlier this season. The Golden Eagles have won nine of the previous 12 matchups between the programs.

In a tightly contested first half, a 14-4 Golden Eagles run gave them a seven-point edge early on, but they went into halftime with just a 34-32 lead.

Kolek and Telfort led their teams with 10 points apiece. The Golden Eagles scored 24 of their 34 points from the paint, while Butler made five 3-pointers to Marquette's one.

Both teams went cold for a stretch in the second, with Marquette missing six of seven shots from the field while Butler had an 0-for-6 rut.

The Golden Eagles were briefly able to establish a lead as high as 12 when Ben Gold dunked with 9:27 to play, but the Bulldogs then went on their key run of the game: a 17-7 stretch that brought them within just two.

The game remained close until the final minutes. Bizjack played a large role, scoring 16 of his points in the second half alone, including two 3-pointers.

With Butler within three and less than two minutes to go, Kolek and Ighodaro put the game to bed.

Kolek hit a stepback 3-pointer before Ighodaro finished a layup through a foul on the next possession. That put the Golden Eagles up by eight with 50 seconds to play.

—Field Level Media