No. 10 Marquette wins 39th straight over Wisconsin-Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE — Junior Cadougan tied his career high with 15 points and No. 10 Marquette beat cross-town rival Wisconsin-Milwaukee for the 39th straight time, 64-50 on Thursday night.
Darius Johnson-Odom and Davante Gardner added 12 points each for Marquette (11-1), which was coming off its first loss of the season Monday at LSU. Cadougan also had a career-high seven rebounds.
Ryan Allen led Milwaukee (9-4) with 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, and Kaylon Williams had 11 points.
Marquette’s 39-game winning streak against Milwaukee is the second-longest involving two Division I teams. Syracuse has beaten Colgate 45 straight times.
The series dates to 1917, and Marquette’s 75-72 victory last season was the closest game in series history. This one also had the look of a rivalry, with physical and sometimes sloppy play on both ends. The teams combined for 41 fouls, including three technicals.
Gardner had three fouls in the half — two on one play, as he followed a hard foul on an alley-oop attempt by Allen with a technical for protesting the call. The play resulted in four free throws for the Panthers and cut Marquette’s lead to 27-25.
The Golden Eagles took off from there.
Marquette used a 10-1 run spanning the first and second halves to open a 37-26 lead. Jamil Wilson had six points during the spurt, and Milwaukee went 7:28 without a basket.
The Panthers pulled to 45-38 with 8:46 left after two free throws by Kyle Kelm. But Marquette used an 11-3 run over the next 4-plus minutes to seal it.
Milwaukee shot just 25 percent in the second half and finished 4 of 28 on 3-pointers. Tony Meier, Milwaukee’s second-leading scorer (11.3 points per game) missed all 10 of his shots, including nine 3-pointers, and finished with two points.
Johnson-Odom also was off his game, and the Golden Eagles held off Milwaukee in the second half in large part without him. Johnson-Odom picked up his fourth foul with 13:12 remaining, tripping Williams 30 feet from the basket. He fouled out with 2:52 left.
The first half was just as ugly, as the teams combined for 21 fouls and 17 turnovers. Milwaukee’s front line battled foul trouble early, with Kelm, Meier and James Haarsma each picking up two fouls by the 5:31 mark of the first half.
Ja’Rob McCallum, Milwaukee’s starting shooting guard, missed his seventh straight game with a wrist injury.