The Marquette Golden Eagles flew higher than the UMES Hawks in a 86-60 victory Tuesday night at the Bradley Center.

Marquette was led by Lazar Hayward and his career-high 28 points.  18 of those points came in the second half, as the Golden Eagles pulled away.

“I’m happy for him [on the career-high],” head coach Buzz Williams said.  ”We don’t need Lazar to score like that to win, but we need him to play like that.”

Hayward logged 30 minutes, and it was due to him staying out of foul trouble.

“We have to figure out a way to keep him and [Jimmy] Butler out of foul trouble in order to be successful,” Williams said.

Others had career-best performances.  Butler hit three 3-pointers, sophomore Chris Otule scored six points and David Cubillan tied a career-high with six assists.

Even though the scores don’t look different, Marquette played a very good second half against UMES.  The Golden Eagles attacked the zone, got into the paint, and hit quite a few 3-pointers.

“Anytime we can get a paint touch, it’s an automatic bucket” Otule said.  ”We have a lot of options in the post.”

Butler led the 3-point charge, as he connected on all three attempts.  Junior Dwight Buycks and Cubillan hit two, Hayward, Darius Johnson-Odom and Maurice Acker hit three’s as well.

Marquette’s second half was easily the best half of basketball it has played in the regular season, as the Golden Eagles outscored UMES 30-12 in the paint.

The team still has a long way to go, but the silver lining is that they are winning their early games by a wide margin.  Pittsburgh beat Wofford by three, Georgetown escaped with a win, Seton Hall won by 2 at home to St. Peters.  UCLA dropped their game, snapping a 37-game home win streak.

Game Notes:  Hayward moved into 26th place on MU’s all-time scoring list.  He’s one point behind Dwyane Wade…Cubillan ha 12 assists compared to two turnovers this year… Butler scored 96% of his points in the paint of from the line last year – that number should shrink considerably this year…Joe Fulce started, but only played six minutes.  His right knee was bruised and had to be drained vs. Centenary.  He is considered day-to-day…This was the first game ever between UMES and Marquette.