The Marquette Golden Eagles picked up a gritty 72-70 victory over Georgia Tech in the opening round of the Orlando Classic on the back of a Herculean effort from BYU transfer Matt Carlino. Carlino set a new career high and Orlando Classic scoring record with 38 points as he made eight three pointers and went 14-16 from beyond the arc.

The Golden Eagles inability to defend inside had been exposed last Saturday in their loss to Nebraska-Omaha and further in their narrow win on Monday over New Jersey Institute of Technology. New head coach Steve Wojciechowski had previously seemed uncertain on how to correct this, but he did tonight as they rolled out a new zone look defensively.

The zone worked wonders as Marquette almost completely nullified Tech's interior presence. Neither Robert Sampson nor Charles Mitchell were able to influence the game, and both were practically nonexistent in the second half.

The game itself was a back-and-forth struggle with both teams going on runs. Marquette started out the far stronger of the two teams, jumping out to a 14-6 lead on the back of Carlino's first two three-pointers. However, it was at that moment that Georgia Tech head coach Brian Gregory took a timeout and completely shut down the momentum.

Tech proceeded to get right back in the game, going on a 12-5 run to cut the lead to just a point. However, Carlino got hot again to further pad the Marquette advantage. He made two more threes to put them up 27-20 only for Tech to go on another run, this one giving them a 29-27 advantage. They would lead 31-29 at the break.

Coming out of the break, another quick five point burst from Carlino gave the Golden Eagles the lead back at 34-33. For the next 10 or so minutes, it was a back and forth grind from both teams. With the exception of Carlino for Marquette and Tadric Jackson and Marcus Georges-Hunt for Tech, neither team shot the ball too well. That became painfully apparent in the middle part of that game, but at the eight minute mark Marquette began to pull away.

Shockingly, Carlino played a part again in a 10-2 Marquette run. He and Juan Anderson both made threes with Anderson and Duane Wilson both scoring from the costless throw line as well. It seemed as if the Golden Eagles would pull away from that point, but Tech came back yet again.

After Marquette had extended their lead to 63-52, their largest of the night, Tech went on a quick 9-2 spurt to pull right back within striking distance with only two minutes left. Over the next minute, it felt as if no one could make a basket with each team missing several open looks. However, after that it became a costless throw battle. Shockingly, Marquette looked to Carlino. 

The former BYU man was 14-16 from the charity stripe all night, and he scored seven of Marquette's final nine points, all of which came from the line. Tech managed to make it interesting over the final thirty seconds, pulling it close and young Tadric Jackson made a three to cut it to a one point game with only 13 seconds on the clock. Jackson had a very good game off the bench, pouring in 17 points to lead Tech and it seemed as if they might just be able to pull of the comeback.

However, it was Carlino who just about put the game on ice for Marquette as he sunk two costless throws with 11 ticks on the clock. Tech came back down court only for Georges-Hunt to take a questionable layup with just two seconds on the clock to make it a one point game. They could not get a steal off the inbounds, and JaJuan Johnson went 1-2 from the line to seal it.

At the end of the day, it was not a clinical performance from the Golden Eagles but one which will make fans very excited. Matt Carlino showed himself to be a premier scorer of the like not usually seen around these parts, and that can only spell good things for Marquette. They will take on 20th ranked Michigan State tomorrow night at 9:00 PM ET on ESPN2 in the semifinals while Georgia Tech will play Rider at 6:30 PM ET on ESPNU in the consolation bracket.