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CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Marquette completed a sweep, likely keeping Rick Pitino out of "the dance." Diminutive point guard Cordell Henry scored 24 points as 10th-ranked Marquette held on for an 84-76 victory over Louisville in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA tournament. Dwyane Wade added six of his 11 points during a key second-half stretch, helping the Golden Eagles (24-6) to a three-game sweep of Louisville (18-12) this season. With their latest setback, the Cardinals likely will be kept from the NCAA Tournament in coach Pitino's first season with the school. They had won three straight games following a 6-9 stretch. "If we get an NIT bid, we will gladly accept it and help our program grow," said Pitino, who won a national championship with Kentucky and has been to three Final Fours. A shoo-in for the NCAA Tournament regardless of its performance this week, Marquette will face either Memphis or Houston in one of Friday's semifinal matchups. The Eagles advanced to the conference tournament semifinals for the first time since 1997, when they won four games in as many days to capture the title. Marquette nearly didn't make it past the quarters this time around. They had a pair of 18-point leads in the first half but had a 42-30 halftime cushion sliced to two points twice in the second half. "We gave them everything we had," Pitino said. "It wasn't enough and that's a tribute to Marquette." Capitalizing on a pressing defense, Luke Whitehead brought Louisville within two points both times, hitting a layup with 6:03 to play and a dunk with 5:21 left to cut the Cardinals' deficit to 67-65. "We should have done more of what coach told us, and that's press," Whitehead said. "By pressing, we forced them to play our style of play and we were able to get back in the game." Wade and Henry combined for 10 points during an 11-4 run that gave Marquette a 78-69 lead with 44 seconds remaining. With Louisville unable to convert in key situations, Wade scored six straight points for the Eagles during the spurt, including a driving dunk with 4:26 to go. "Our game is defense and rebounding," said Henry, whose team held a 36-33 edge off the boards. "We're not going to get away from what got us here." The 5-10 Henry went 9-of-18 from the field for Marquette, which shot 47 percent (26-of-55), making half its 12 3-point attempts. The Eagles also outscored the Cardinals from the free-throw line, 26-16. "Their point guard has given us more trouble than any other player," Pitino said. "Cordell is a great player." Louisville was a two-man team. Reece Gaines had 29 points, hitting four of his team's nine 3-pointers, and Whitehead added 25 in 32 minutes off the bench. Bryant Northern was held scoreless and fouled out in 21 minutes after scoring 25 points in Wednesday's 110-86 win over Texas Christian in the tournament's first round. Typical of a Pitino-coached team, Louisville set a school record for 3-point attempts in a season with 724, topping the 1996-97 mark of 706. |
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