Portage County Gazette

Former Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) standouts Sam and Joey Hauser helped the NCAA Division 1 Marquette University men’s basketball cap its trip to the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament with an overtime victory over Louisville (3-2) Friday, Nov. 23.

Sam led the Golden Eagles (4-2) with 22 points and seven rebounds, while Joey had a tip-in with 14.6 seconds left in regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime, where he scored the final two points from the free-throw line in a 77-74 win over Louisville at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Marquette carried a 3-1 record into the tournament, where 6-8 junior guard/forward Sam and 6-9 redshirt freshman forward Joey were both in the starting lineup as the Golden Eagles took on second-ranked Kansas (5-0) Wednesday, Nov. 21.

Joey Hauser

While Joey was limited to four minutes in the first half with two fouls, Sam knocked down 5-of-8 shots from three-point range and led all scores with 17 points in the first half, as Marquette took a 47-38 lead into halftime.

However, Kansas went on a 22-0 run to start the second half and take a 60-47 lead with 11:02 to play in the game.

Sam and Joey hit back-to-back three-pointers to bring the Golden Eagles within 60-53 with 10:18 remaining, but that was as close as Marquette would get the rest of the way, as Kansas went on to win 77-68.

Sam finished with 20 points and six rebounds to lead the Golden Eagles, while Joey added nine points and five rebounds.

Marquette was back in action against Louisville in the third-place game of the tournament Friday night, where Sam had 12 points in the first half to lead all scorers, but Louisville carried a 35-30 lead into halftime.

Louisville held on to a 64-61 lead with just over one minute to play in regulation, when Joey came up with a steal and was fouled, and proceeded to knock down a pair of free throws to pull Marquette within 64-63 with 1:03 left.

The Golden Eagles trailed 68-66 with 14.6 seconds to play, when Joey tipped in a missed jumper from junior guard Marcus Howard to tie the game at 68-68 and eventually send it to overtime after Louisville missed a shot and a pair of tip-in attempts in the final seconds of regulation.

In overtime, Howard knocked down a jumper in the paint with 55.1 seconds remaining to give Marquette a 75-74 lead, and Sam came up with a block on the next possession with 30.7 seconds to go.

Joey followed with a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left to make it 77-74, and Louisville missed a pair of three-pointers in the final five seconds, as Marquette won 77-74.

Sam shot 4-of-7 from three-point range and led the Golden Eagles with 22 points and seven rebounds in 40 minutes, while Joey shot 7-of-8 from the free-throw line and finished with 11 points and five rebounds in 33 minutes in the win.

Through six games this season, Sam is second on Marquette with 17.3 points per game and leads the team with 6.5 rebounds per game, while he is shooting 40.8 percent from three-point range and 92.3 percent from the free-throw line.

Joey ranks third on the team in scoring with 11.3 points per game and third in minutes with 28 per game, while he is second on the team in rebounds with 6 per game and is shooting 37.5 percent on three-pointers and 88.9 percent from the free-throw line.

“Sam is one of the most underrated players in the country,” said college basketball analyst Jay Bilas during the broadcast of the game against Louisville on ESPN2. “He does everything out there, and doesn’t get near the credit nationally that I believe he deserves.

“And Joey’s going to be a terrific player,” said Bilas. “He came to college early in January, he really couldn’t do much because of injury, but got the proper medical care and is really going to blossom, I think, into a great college player.”