Hauser brothers help Marquette beat Wisconsin in OT
Portage County Gazette
By John Kemmeter
Former Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) standouts Sam and Joey Hauser each scored in double figures, as the Marquette University men’s basketball team knocked off 12th-ranked University of Wisconsin in overtime at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Saturday, Dec. 8.
Sam Hauser hit a free throw with 1:49 left in the second half to tie the game at 61-61, which it remained at the end of regulation and into overtime.
Joey Hauser scored four of Marquette’s first six points in the extra period to give the Golden Eagles a 67-63 lead, and Marquette (8-2) held on at the free-throw line down stretch to eventually close out a 74-69 win over Wisconsin (8-2).
“It was something I’ve looked forward to for a long time,” said Joey Hauser of the rivalry. “You don’t want to look forward to one specific game during the year, but this is definitely one that we all had circled on our calendars.
“But we took it game by game, each game this season, and today was a big one for me,” he said.
In the 125th meeting between the in-state rivals, Wisconsin carried a 67-57 advantage into the first game between the two teams at the sold out Fiserv Forum, while Marquette looked to win for the second year in a row after an 82-63 victory over the Badgers in Madison last December.
The opening half saw six lead changes before the 10:00-mark, as Sam Hauser hit a three-pointer at 12:44 to give Marquette a 12-10 lead and Joey Hauser knocked down a three-pointer to increase the lead to 17-13 with 10:36 left, before Wisconsin sophomore forward Nate Reuvers scored six consecutive points to give the Badgers an 18-17 lead with 8:53 to go in the first half.
Sam Hauser followed with a three-pointer with 6:56 remaining to put Marquette ahead 20-19, but Wisconsin got three-pointers from sophomore point guard D’Mitrik Trice and sophomore forward Aleem Ford to lead an 8-2 run that gave the team a 27-22 advantage with 4:09 to play in the first half, before Marquette junior point guard Markus Howard scored on a jumper in the lane with one second left to pull the Golden Eagles within 33-32 at halftime.
“During timeouts we talked a lot about, ‘everybody take a deep breath, relax,’ because the crowd obviously is going to play a factor and just get you hyped up,” said Joey Hauser. “It’s sold out, and this is an unbelievable arena, the fans are crazy, so just staying poised, and sticking to the game plan was really what keeps you emotionally just even keel.”
Wisconsin used four points from Preseason All-American senior forward Ethan Happ to extend its lead to 40-34 with 17:31 to go in the second half, and the Badgers maintained the lead until Joey Hauser hit a three-pointer and sophomore center Theo John followed with back-to-back baskets in a 7-2 run that gave the Golden Eagles a 52-51 lead with 5:56 to play.
Wisconsin answered with a three-point play from Happ and a three-pointer from Reuvers to go up 57-54 with under five minutes to play, while Joey Hauser hit a three-pointer from the left corner to give Marquette the lead back at 59-57 with 3:25 to play.
The closing minutes of regulation saw the lead change hands three times, before Sam Hauser hit a free throw with 1:49 to go to tie the game at 61-61. Reuvers and Howard followed with misses from three-point range, Marquette junior forward Ed Morrow blocked Happ at the rim with 35 seconds to go before a turnover with 30 seconds left, and Howard missed a jumper at the buzzer to send the game into overtime tied at 61-61.
In the extra period, Joey Hauser opened with a reverse layup to give the Golden Eagles a 63-61 lead, and after Happ and Howard traded jumpers, Joey Hauser sank a pair of free throws to give Marquette a 67-63 lead with 3:35 to play.
Wisconsin trailed 69-66 with less than two minutes to play and had a chance to tie, but Reuvers missed a three-pointer with 1:25 left, and the Badgers were down 71-67 with 41 seconds remaining when Marquette began a string of six consecutive missed free throws.
However, Wisconsin had a missed-three-pointer and a turnover from Trice over the next 22 seconds, and junior guard Brevin Pritzl missed a three-pointer with nine seconds left, before Morrow knocked down a pair of free throws to give Marquette a 73-67 lead on the way to a 74-69 victory.
“I feel like we’re going to make free throws most of the time in those situations, tonight we didn’t,” said Marquette men’s basketball head coach Steve Wojciechowski. “But our defense was good enough to still win.
“We should be gaining confidence in the fact that we win games in different ways, and I think our team is,” he said.
“They made shots and we didn’t, and that’s a momentum swinger,” said Wisconsin men’s basketball head coach Greg Gard. “We went through a lull where we didn’t score, and we missed some free throws during that time, and they obviously made some plays.”
Happ shot 16-of-21 from the field and scored a career-high 34 points to go along with 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals; Trice finished with 10 points, seven rebounds, and five assists; and Reuvers had 11 points and four rebounds for the Badgers.
“We know we didn’t play our best today, and you can see it in the stats where the shots weren’t falling,” said Happ. “So you’re happy that you’re in the game, obviously, when that’s not going for you.
“But we did too many things, our own problems, that shot ourselves in the foot, and we’re not happy about that,” he said.
“Ethan Happ, there’s only so much you can do with that guy; he’s an All-American for a reason,” said Sam Hauser. “He’s a great player.
“He’s going to get his, you’ve just got to try to limit the other guys around him,” he said.
Howard shot 7-of-29 from the field and led Marquette with 27 points, while Joey Hauser scored 15 points, and Sam Hauser finished with 13 points, 14 rebounds and four assists on his 21st birthday.
“Obviously this is the best birthday present I could ever get,” said Sam. “These are huge games, and winning at home against a team like that, it builds up your resume, and it tests where we are as a team.
“We’ve crossed a couple of bridges these last two or three games, and now we’ve just got to keep building off it and keep building our resume,” he said.
“This is the best birthday gift I could give him,” said Joey. “We just really wanted this win together.
“Growing up in the state of Wisconsin, everybody’s a Badger fan,” he said. “So me and Sam are really happy to get this win.”