Marquette and Georgetown treated the crowd at the BMO Harris Bradley Center to a surprisingly offensive show, but after the first 20 minutes the Hoyas lead the Golden Eagles 45-39. Graduate student Matt Carlino leads all scorers with 16 points with four 3-point makes. Big East Preseason Player of the Year D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera leads the Hoyas with 15 points and five triples.

Marquette scored its third-highest total for a first half, but allowed its highest first half total defensively. Aside from Carlino, no other Golden Eagle has more than four points on the score sheet. Center Luke Fischer has been limited to just two points and three shots with three rebounds. He has been a force defensively with four blocks in the first stanza.

Both teams fired on all cylinders offensively. Marquette shot 62 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc, while Georgetown shot 58 percent from the floor and 41 percent from long range. Georgetown got easy looks early and often from the floor and did a great job of finding holes in the Marquette zone.

Marquette has been able to keep up with Georgetown offensively and may need to keep it up if its defense continues to struggle. These defensive struggles come as a surprise, as Marquette has been particularly stingy in the first halves of games.

The first half had its share of fireworks starting right out of the gates and Carlino drained four consecutive 3-pointers to get the game started for Marquette. Georgetown answered with several deep balls of their own. Derrick Wilson made a SportsCenter worthy play when he threw down an emphatic and-one slam over Georgetown’s Paul White that sent the crowd into a frenzy.

Marquette may need to keep this from becoming a shootout if it wants any hope of pulling the upset.