Marquise Walker buries Ball.Life with 10 made 3s
Walker
Marquise Walker scored 25 points on 9-15 shooting from the field and 7-8 from the free-throw line in an 80-77 loss to the Rebels last night in the Bloomington South Rec-Plus League. The Muskies shot 53% from the field and 41% from deep in the loss. Those a re very impressive shooting percentages against the defensive-minded Rebels, who have allowed 61.5 points per game this season, the second-best defense in the league.
This is not the headline of this story, as the Muskies had to play a game against Ball.Life (who were coming off an 86-63 loss to the Guerrillas) immediately after the close loss to the Rebels. Playing a back-to-back is already a tough test, but to play a game after facing the Rebels, a tough, defensive team that makes you work for good shots, adds to the challenge. The one thing the Muskies had going for them is that they were playing against the 0-6 Ball.Life, who give up 91 points per game, by far the worst in the league.
The Muskies took advantage of the combination of a poor defensive team playing in their second straight game and cruised to a 131-90 win. The Muskies had one of the most impressive shooting nights you’ll ever see in a UH game, as they shot 50-85 (59%) and 30-55 (55%) from beyond the arc.
The scoring attack was led by Walker, who scored a league-high 52 points on 21-26 shooting from the field and an absurd 10-11 from deep. The 52 points is a rec-plus single-game scoring record in Bloomington South, which covers this season and four seasons from the Summer of 2007 through the Spring of 2008.
This was a Durant-esque scoring performance from Walker, who is having a career-best season. Walker is averaging 30.8 points per game with shooting percentage splits of 65/78/82. Those are all career-highs for Walker, and the only other player I can think of that is a member of the 60/70/80 club is Josh Hoyle, who shot 69/71/90 in the Fall of 2018 in the Fridley Rec-Plus League.
Walker was far from the only player that lit it up for the Muskies, as Darian Pittman and Jon Christenson both shot 56% or better from deep as well. Pittman shot 9-14 from deep for 27 points, and Christenson shot 5-9 from deep for 15 points.
This kind of shooting won’t be commonplace for the Muskies, but they’ll have to have another impressive offensive showing next week when they face the Guerrillas. The Guerrillas score an average of 79 points per game, third-best in the league, and slightly trailing the Muskies’ 81.7 points per game.