Markus Howard made more history Wednesday night at Creighton, scoring 53 points to fuel a thrilling 106-104 overtime win over the Bluejays. His performance broke the Marquette and BIG EAST records for single-game scoring, which he set last season against Providence.
“I guess we shouldn’t be surprised anymore, right?” Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “On certain nights, he’s capable of being magical. … He certainly delivered at an incredible level tonight.”
The win was hardly a guarantee. With two seconds left in regulation, Marquette was down five points. Graduate senior Joseph Chartouny hit a layup with 0.8 seconds left to cut the Bluejays’ lead to 85-82.
Then after an errant inbound pass from Creighton senior Connor Cashaw, Marquette had an inbound opportunity behind its own basket. Creighton head coach Greg McDermott repeatedly took responsibility for the poor inbound play in his postgame press conference.
“That’s on me,” McDermott said. “I really let the kids down. … All that (one player) had to do was touch it, and why he didn’t, I’m not sure.”
Marquette’s inbound pass went to Marquette junior forward Sam Hauser, who quickly released a three several feet behind the 3-point line and hit the shot at the buzzer.
“Sam making that shot at the end was huge for us,” Howard said. “We wouldn’t have won that game if it wasn’t for him.”
Howard said Marquette frequently practices situational drills similar to Hauser’s catch-and-shoot at the buzzer.
“In practice, Sam is always the one to make those crazy shots at the buzzer,” Howard said. “Him hitting that shot (Wednesday night), it was unbelievable, but it wasn’t really a surprise to me.”
Once overtime started, Howard took over, scoring Marquette’s first 11 points in overtime. He had 14 points in overtime on 4-for-5 shooting, which included three 3-pointers. Creighton had no answers for Howard’s scoring barrage, never leading in overtime.
“Markus Howard is an incredible player,” McDermott said. “I compared him yesterday to Trae Young.”
Howard barely even missed Wednesday night, going 15-for-26 from the field and 10-for-14 from three. He was also nearly perfect from the charity stripe, going 13-for-15 from the free-throw line.
“The theme (talking to other coaches) was if he has one of those nights where he’s making circus shots, good luck,” McDermott said.
The junior guard was involved in approximately 53 percent of possessions in the win, which resulted in a season-high nine turnovers.
Howard was not the only one beleaguered by turnovers early on. Marquette had six turnovers in the first 10 minutes, allowing Creighton to take a double-digit lead nine minutes into the first half.
Sam and Joey Hauser complemented Howard’s monstrous performance with 13 points each. Sam Hauser had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds and now sits 10 points away from becoming the 50th 1000-point scorer in program history.
Marquette’s newly improved defense had a setback, allowing 51-percent shooting from the field and 52-percent shooting from three.
Davion Mintz, Ty-Shon Alexander, Martin Krampelj and Mitch Ballock all had at least 16 points for Creighton.
The Golden Eagles were not afraid to shoot the three either, hitting 57 percent of threes. The two teams combined for an astounding 33 3-pointers.
Marquette won despite limited opportunities in the fastbreak. The Golden Eagles had just two fastbreak points.
With the win, Marquette is 4-1 in the Wojciechowski era at Creighton. In all other BIG EAST road games, Marquette is 9-24 since Wojciechowski took over in 2014.
“I hope I get to coach a long, long, long time,” Wojciechowski said. “I don’t I’ll ever be a part of a game like this again.”
This is the Golden Eagles’ first true away win of the 2018-‘19 season. Marquette will put its undefeated record at Fiserv Forum to the test Saturday against Seton Hall. The Pirates are also in action Wednesday night, hosting the Butler Bulldogs.
