A year ago, Marquette had a 12-point lead in the second half before foul trouble dismantled the Golden Eagles’ lead. With Luke Fischer, Markus Howard and Matt Heldt all fouled out, the Friars walked away with a 73-69 lead.
In Marquette’s return to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center Wednesday night, foul trouble appeared to have spoiled another quality road win. Sacar Anim, Heldt and Greg Elliott all fouled out, leaving Marquette with only six scholarship players.
“We really have to work on (not fouling),” Howard told ESPN Milwaukee afterwards.
But Markus Howard refused to let Marquette lose.
The sophomore guard scored a program record 52 points to fuel a 95-90 overtime win over the Friars. His 52 points matched former Friar MarShon Brooks’ BIG EAST mark for points in a game.
Many of his 3-pointers came at essential times. Following a 10-0 Providence run late in the second half, Howard answered with a scoring output more closely resembling a video game than reality. He put up 10 points in just over two minutes to send the game into overtime. Marquette had a chance to win it in regulation, but a Rowsey 3-pointer at the buzzer was off the mark.
In overtime, Howard came two points short of outscoring the entire Providence roster. His 10 overtime points came on 4-of-5 shooting. Fellow sophomore Sam Hauser nailed a 3-pointer with less than 16 seconds left to remove any doubt.
“That’s my roommate. I know him like the back of my hand,” Howard told ESPN Milwaukee. “I could definitely tell when the ball left his fingertips that that ball was going in.”
Howard’s 3-point parade also got Marquette out of several jams earlier in the night. With the game tied at 52, Howard hit back-to-back 3-pointers from the right side to spark an 8-2 run.
“I kind of wanted to let the game just flow — let the game come to me,” Howard said. “Coach (Wojciechowski) was drawing up great plays for me particularly … I just had to definitely create off of plays (Wojo) was running, and we were able to execute tonight.”
His hot shooting came despite a relative lull in the first half. Howard missed four of his first five shots and did not hit a 2-pointer until the second half.
Marquette did not have a monopoly on high-scoring guards. Providence point guard Kyron Cartwright scored 29 points on 8-for-15 shooting from the field and 12-for-15 shooting from the free throw line. He had 10 points in the first eight minutes of the game. The senior guard averaged 11.5 points per game entering Wednesday’s contest.
The victory Wednesday came despite limited production from Anim. The redshirt sophomore picked up three fouls in the first 10 minutes of the second half, keeping him on the bench for the final quarter of regulation and the overtime period.
Marquette is now 2-0 in overtime games. The Golden Eagles also defeated Eastern Illinois 86-83 Nov. 27. The win is also Marquette’s first against a team ranked 65th or better by KenPom, a prominent college basketball analytics site.
Howard and company will not have time to dwell on the win; the Golden Eagles visit No. 3 Villanova Saturday. The Golden Eagles upset the top-ranked Wildcats last January at the BMO Harris Bradley Center but lost by 12 in the matchup at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
“I’m going to enjoy it tonight, but knowing we have a great team in Villanova on Saturday, I have to be able to move on and know that no one is really going to care what happened last game,” Howard said. “They’re going to worry about what I’m going to do next.”
