Matt Velazquez

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Marquette men's basketball team opened up its preseason slate with an 83-79 victory over Dayton on Saturday in a closed, 40-minute scrimmage at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the home of the Indiana Pacers. It was a tight game throughout, featuring seven ties.

"I think overall it was really a good experience for our team to have a chance to play against somebody else, against a team and a program that has a lot of returners and has had a lot of success," head coach Steve Wojciechowski said in an interview on Monday. "It was a great test for us and we certainly got to learn a lot about our team."

According to stats obtaining by the Journal Sentinel, the Golden Eagles got the job done by attacking the paint. Marquette went 21 for 32 inside the three-point arc, scored 36 points in the paint and took 35 free throws, making 26 (74.3%).

"I think people have to honor our shooting, so I think that can open up some driving lanes for our wings," Wojciechowski said. While coaches and programs are not allowed to discuss so-called "secret scrimmages" before they occur, a rule change this summer now allows coaches and programs to discuss specifics of the scrimmage publicly and/or post on social media after it has occurred.

"We want to play through the paint first, whether that's off the dribble or whether that's on a post feed we want to get the ball into the paint and then when we're in there make good decisions. I thought we did that, especially in the second half. I thought our guys drove the ball well."

Sophomore Haanif Cheatham led the Golden Eagles with 22 points on 6 for 8 shooting from the field (all two-point shots) and 10 for 12 shooting from the free-throw line. Senior wings Jajuan Johnson and Katin Reinhardt added 18 points each. Johnson was 5 for 9 from the floor and 7 for 9 at the free-throw line while Reinhardt, a graduate transfer from USC, went 5 for 12, including 3 for 8 from beyond the three-point arc, and 5 for 6 from the charity stripe.

"Overall I thought it was a really good effort," Wojciechowski said. "Obviously our wings — Katin, J.J. and Haani — did a really good job for us. I love the fact that Jajuan and Haani really got to the foul line. Their attacking was very good for our team. Those guys I thought really played well, those three."

Cheatham, Johnson and Reinhardt were joined in the starting lineup by sophomores Matt Heldt and Traci Carter. Though Heldt started, senior center Luke Fischer was more effective, going 4 for 4 from the field on the way to scoring 11 points while adding five rebounds and a block. Fischer's five rebounds were second on the team, behind seven from Cheatham. As a team, the Golden Eagles pulled down 31 rebounds. Rebounding numbers were not available from Dayton, but the Flyers outscored the Golden Eagles in terms of second-chance points, 11-2.

Though Marquette's outside shooting is expected to improve from last year, the Golden Eagles struggled from three-point range going 5 for 22. Johnson and freshman Markus Howard were the only Marquette players outside of Reinhardt to make a three-pointer. Four other players combined to go 0 for 9 on three-point attempts.

"I thought we took some deep ones," Wojciechowski said. "Where we played the NBA three-point line was down so we ended up shooting NBA three's instead of college three's and those are obviously much harder shots. The good thing was we didn't shoot the ball well and we still found a way to be really competitive."

One area of notable improvement, though, was in taking care of the ball. Marquette recorded just nine turnovers on Saturday night while coaxing seven steal and outscored Dayton in points off turnovers, 11-7.

"I think that's one of the things I was most pleased with," Wojciechowski said of the single-digit turnovers. "That's been a real point of emphasis for us in the preseason and I thought we took really good care of the ball and that's something we want to continue to do."

While Marquette's play on the court was encouraging, the scrimmage also allowed the team to simulate a road trip, which is one of the reasons Wojciechowski has taken the team out of town for one closed-door scrimmage per season.

"To be able to practice what it's going to be like from A to Z on a road trip — travel, planes, meals, all that stuff, preparation — I thought that gave us a good rehearsal for what we'll see here coming up in a few short weeks," Wojciechowski said.

Marquette will return to action at 1 p.m. Saturday when it will take on Rockhurst in an exhibition game at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

AnotherEllenson drafted: Wally Ellenson was in Brooklyn this past June, watching and celebrating with his younger brother Henry who was taken 18th in the NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons after one season at Marquette.

On Sunday, it was Wally's turn. Wally, a 6-foot-6 guard, was drafted in the third of six rounds in the NBA Development League's draft, going 54th overall to the Los Angeles D-Fenders.

Wally, who transferred to Marquette after two years at Minnesota and redshirted the 2014-'15 season before playing for the Golden Eagles in 2015-'16. During that season, he averaged 1.9 points and 2.2 rebounds while playing 8.8 minutes per contest. In April, the basketball program announced he would no longer be with the team, though he would have the option to stay on full at Marquette on a full track scholarship so he — a four-time All-American high jumper — could complete his final year of eligibility in indoor track.

With the D-Fenders, Wally will be a teammate of former Marquette standout Vander Blue.

AP Top 25: On Monday, the Associated Press announced its preseason top 25. It features Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Villanova and Oregon as its top five with two other Big East teams — Xavier (No. 7) and Creighton (No. 22) — opening the season among the ranked teams.

No. 9 Wisconsin represents Marquette's only non-conference foe that opens the season in the AP Top 25. Dayton, Marquette's opponent in Saturday's scrimmage, received the second-most votes among the teams that missed the rankings cut.

For the third consecutive season, I will serve as a voter for the AP Top 25, representing the state of Wisconsin. You can find my preseason picks here, which include eight selections in the same spot as the poll and the same teams in the top 10, though in slightly different order. Starting on Nov. 14 — the first regular-season poll of the year — I'll do my best to share my poll each week along with some of the reasons why I picked the way I did.​