LAHAINA, Hawaii – Butler's Rotnei Clarke hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to shock Marquette 72-71 on Monday at the start of the Maui Invitational.
Clarke hit the improbable basket after the Bulldogs (2-1) drove the length of the court down two points with less than 8 seconds left.
Clarke — who had missed most of his 3-point shots for the game — made the shot from the right side and was mobbed on the gym floor by his teammates after it went through.
Marquette's Andrew Thomas hit an acrobatic putback layup and made a free throw to put the Golden Eagles (2-1) up three with 30.9 seconds left. Clarke missed a 3-pointer for the tie, but Erik Fromm got an offensive rebound and made a layup with 9 seconds left. Clarke fouled Marquette's Junior Cadougan on the next play, but Cadougan missed his second free throw to set up the winning shot.
Clarke had 20 points and made just 4 of 14 3-point attempts. But the shots he hit came in big moments, including two to tie in the first half.
None were bigger than the last shot in a tournament built on celebrating improbable upsets.
Khyle Marshall had 24 points and nine rebounds for Butler. Vander Blue scored 21 points for the Golden Eagles.
Marquette went on a quick 12-0 run after Marshall scored the opening basket for Butler. But the Bulldogs grinded their way back, making a few more baskets during a stretch in which both teams kept a frenetic pace, but neither shot particularly well.
Clarke hit a 3-pointer with just under 4 minutes left in the half to tie the game at 23, and Butler went into halftime with a 31-30 lead.
The teams then traded blows from the start in the second half. Cadougan hit a jumper 3 minutes in to give Marquette a one-point lead, Marshall responded with an alley-oop dunk from Jones, then Anderson shot back with a reverse layup to put the Golden Eagles back up again.
Marquette maintained a small lead through the bulk of the last 10 minutes of the game.
The game had three ties and four lead changes.
___
Oskar Garcia can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia .
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.