Marquette picked up the 75-56 win against Jacksonville University Wednesday night despite being without senior guard Markus Howard, who was in concussion protocol. Here is a breakdown of the victory:
Game MVP: Sacar Anim led the Golden Eagles on the night with 19 points, efficiently shooting 7-for-15 from the field. He also added four rebounds and two assists.
“He’s always been a good player,” Jamal Cain said. “We tell him just to play his game and we got his back, we want to give him the confidence just to be himself and do what he does.”
Key Stats:
Jacksonville shot 30% from the field Wednesday night while going 5-for-20 from beyond the 3-point line.
Marquette won the rebound battle 49-36, with Jamal Cain leading the Golden Eagles with 12 boards.
Neither team shot well from the free throw line, with Marquette shooting 18-for-27 and Jacksonville shooting 15-for-26.
Other than Anim, Theo John was the only Golden Eagle in double figures with 11 points. He also had seven rebounds.
There were 28 fouls between the two teams in the second half alone and 43 fouls in the entire game.
Notes:
This was the first game Marquette had played without Markus Howard since the Feb. 21, 2017, game against St. John’s. However, last year at Creighton he played just three minutes with a back injury.
In the absence of Howard, first-year guard Symir Torrence played a career-high 15 minutes, made the only shot he took from three and posted four assists.
Redshirt junior guard Koby McEwen fouled out with just over five minutes left and finished the game 1-for-8 from the field along with four assists. All of his eight shots from the field were from beyond the arc.
Twenty of Marquette’s 75 points were off the fast break, compared to just 10 fast break points for Jacksonville.
Injury Report: Steve Wojciechowski said after the game that Markus Howard banged his head when they got back from Florida and is in the concussion protocol. His return is dependent on how he recovers, and his status for Marquette’s next game Saturday is unknown.
Next Up: Marquette will travel to Manhattan, Kansas, to face Kansas State Saturday at 8 p.m. in a rematch of a game last year that Marquette won 83-71 at Fiserv Forum.
This story was written by Matt Yeazel. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @MJYeazel.