The Marquette Golden Eagles defeated the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Golden Retrievers 67-42 in its home opener at Fiserv Forum Tuesday night. Here are a few takeaways from the first game in the new arena:
Howard displays versatility on court
Though junior Markus Howard is most known for his perimeter scoring, Tuesday night showed a different side of his game. He had eight rebounds and seven assists while committing two turnovers.
“What I do like are the seven assists. What I do like is that handing over the ball majority of the time. He only had two turnovers,” head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “He had eight defensive rebounds. That’s pretty darn good.”
At the end of the first half Howard had just 10 points on 4-for-11 shooting from the field and 1-for-7 shooting on 3-pointers. The second half did not go much better, as Howard finished the night shooting 5 for 16 from field and 2 for 12 from beyond the arc. This is the first time Howard has scored less than 20 points in a regular season game since Feb. 26.
“He played a really good floor game,” Wojciechowski said. “I’m not concerned about Markus’s shooting.”
Theo John notches first career double-double
Sophomore forward Theo John came just short of recording a new career high in scoring but recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
John only played 24 minutes, but had a presence around the rim with three blocks.
“(Theo) gave us an incredible spark off the bench,” Wojciechowski said. “A lot of the times he was away from the basket having to guard shooting fives or switches guards, and he handled those situations really well.”
Deep bench helps without Hauser and Howard
With Howard struggling from beyond the arc and junior Sam Hauser leaving for a few minutes with a minor injury, Marquette relied on the depth of its bench to make up the points, and the bench players did not disappoint.
The Golden Eagles’ bench outscored the Golden Retrievers’ bench 26-9. John led the bench players with 11 points, sophomore Jamal Cain added seven points and freshman Joey Hauser had six points.
“With the depth that we have, we can (play) and give 110 percent and then send a new guy in and do the same,” John said.
Wojciechowski said this depth will be vital throughout the season.
“Everybody has to be ready. Everybody’s important,” Wojciechowski said. “At any given moment, in any given game, a guy can be the catalyst, whether he’s started, whether he’s played a lot in the game before or whether he’s coming off the bench.”
Stat of the night: Freshman forward Brendan Bailey scores the first points at Fiserv Forum with a 3-pointer from the corner.
Quote of the night: “Seeing a full building in a game that traditionally is not full was something that my kids and our staff really appreciated,” head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “Hopefully we can make that the tradition as we enter in this new era of being here at Fiserv.”
Up next: Marquette Golden Eagles host the Bethune-Cookman University Wildcats Saturday at 3 p.m. Central time at Fiserv Forum.
