Marquette surged back from a 12-point, second-half deficit and Darryl Morsell eclipsed 20 points for the third straight game as the Golden Eagles stunned No. 10 Illinois 67-66 on Monday night in Milwaukee.
Morsell finished with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting (58.3 percent) to lead the Golden Eagles to their first 3-0 start since the 2011-12 season. Justin Lewis added 17, and Tyler Kolek had 12 to go along with his five assists and five rebounds. Kur Kuath also blocked five shots in the contest to tie his career-high.
Marquette (3-0) trailed 58-46 with just over 10 minutes left until the final whistle but rallied and outscored Illinois (2-1) 22-8 for the remainder of play. Kolek stripped Trent Frazier with 19 seconds left and scored the go-ahead layup on the other end to secure the win.
Frazier scored a season-high 23 points and posted five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Coleman Hawkins added 13 points and eight rebounds, and Jacob Grandison contributed 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Marquette closed the first half on a 17-6 run that lasted over nine minutes. Kuath, Kam Jones and Lewis all had four points during the surge, and despite finding themselves in an 11-rebound deficit through the first 20 minutes of action, the Golden Eagles took a 28-27 lead into the break.
Lewis scored another four points to kick off the second half, but the Illini responded with an 11-1 run to take a 38-33 advantage. Frazier later rifled off three 3-pointers in under two and a half minutes to push the lead to nine, which was Illinois’ largest lead at the time.
After averaging 16 turnovers through its first two games, Illinois tallied 15 in the first half and finished with a season-high 26 on the game.
Both teams got off to sloppy starts, as Marquette converted just three of their first 15 shot attempts (20 percent), while Illinois went 6-for-20 (30 percent) from the field to open play.
–Field Level Media
