Tyler Kolek scored 27 points and Oso Ighodaro added 17 to lead No. 4 Marquette to a 78-72 win against Butler on Tuesday night in Indianapolis.
Kolek, the reigning Big East Player of the Week, also dished out five assists and grabbed seven boards. Ighodaro finished with a double-double with 10 rebounds as Marquette (19-5, 10-3 Big East) won its eighth straight contest.
Freshman Finley Bizjack surprised off the bench, leading Butler (16-9, 7-7) 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 on Jan. 10. 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 Marquette a seven-point edge early on, but it went into halftime with just a 34-32 lead.
Kolek and Telfort led their teams with 10 points apiece in the first half. The Golden Eagles scored 24 of their 34 points in 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 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 step-back 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
