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ST. THOMAS, USVI--Senior guard Andre Jones scored a career-high 29 points, but it wasn't enough as Winthrop battled 19th ranked Marquette before dropping a 95-73 decision in the first round of the 2011 U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam on Friday night at the UVI Sports and Fitness Center.

Winthrop will now face Drake at 6 p.m. EST on Saturday.  The game will be video streamed on the ParadiseJam.com network.  Drake lost to Mississippi, 63-59 , earlier on Friday. after holding a 10-point lead at halftime.

With Jones pouring in 17 first half points, Winthrop (0-3) trailed the Golden Eagles by only eight points at intermission, 45-37.  Marquette (3-0)  the No. 1 seed in the tournament kept the determined Eagles at bay for the entire game although Winthrop trailed by only four points with just over a minute left in the first half after Jones converted two free throws to make the score 39-35.  Marquette, who was picked 6th in the Big East preseason poll, squelched any hope of a Winthrop upset by connecting on 57 percent from the field.  The Golden Eagles finished the game with a 31-54 performance, including 9 of 19 from beyond the arc.  Marquette also enjoyed a huge advantage from the free throw line as it made 24 of 35, including 14 of 24 in the first half. Winthrop had its best shooting performance of the young season as the Eagles connected on 24 of 57 (42.1 pct.) and made a season-high 10 three-pointers in 25 attempts. The Eagles wound up making 15 of 20 from the charity stripe.

"I thought we gave a tremendous effort tonight against one of the nation's top teams," said head coach Randy Peele.  "This was an eight-point game at halftime, so I think our guys were still in it at that point. When you're going up against a team like Marquette, you have to keep them at bay. In the second half, we couldn't do that."

'I hope our fans will realize that we are playing one of the best non-conference schedules in the country and although we are 0-3 that is not indicative of how well this team has played and the potential that it has," he said.  "We have now faced an ACC team and a Big East school and tomorrow night we will face a Missouri Valley school (Drake)."

Peele said the difference in the game was the strength of Marquette's frontcourt and its ability to drive to the basket. "Their guards just kept coming at us and when we buckled down in the paint, they always seemed to find the open man on the perimeter," Peele said. "We'll definitely take something away from this game."

Regarding the play of Jones, Peele said,  "that was the best he has ever played.  Andre never gave up and he continued to attack."

Winthrop took an early 3-0 lead when Matt Morgan drilled just his third career 3-pointer from the right wing with only 39 seconds having elapsed.  Marquette came back to outscore the Eagles 13-5 in the next four minutes to take a 13-8 lead at the 15:48 mark, but Winthrop then went on an 8-0 run in less than a minute to go ahead 16-15 on a pair of free throw by Joab Jerome.  Jones and freshman Andre Smith hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start the run.

Darius Johnson-Odom answered for Marquette with a 3-pointer to put Marquette up 18-16 and the Golden Eagles would never trail again. 

Joining Jones in double figures for the Eagles was senior guard Reggie Middleton with 10.  Marquette placed five players in double figures as Vander Blue led the way with 26 followed by Johnson-Odom with 20.  A trio of Golden Eagles--Jae Crowder, Chris Otule, and Todd Mayo--finished with 11 points each
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Even though Winthrop lost the rebound war, the Eagles gave Marquette a battle on the boards as well coming up just short (34-31).  Freshman Larry Brown came off the bench to grab seven rebounds to tie Marquette's 7-foot center Chris Otule for game-high honors. Another area where Winthrop held its own was in the turnover department as the Eagles committed only 13 while forcing Marquette into 13.  The Golden Eagles came into the contest averaging 29 forced turnovers per game.