On Thursday night the Marquette men’s basketball team played in front of a student-only crowd of 3,706 inside the Al McGuire Center. It’s their first regular season game played in the Al McGuire Center since 2014. The Golden Eagles won the game 97-73.
Here’s a breakdown of Thursday night’s action:
Game MVP:
Sophomore forward David Joplin showed off his range while scoring a career-high and team best 23 points. Joplin went 8-for-12 from the field and 6-for-10 from beyond the arc. In addition he pulled down four rebounds.
“I’m looking forward to more opportunities like this, I’m not going to settle for nothing at all. I’m just going to keep being aggressive, keep going after it,” Joplin said.
In the second half Joplin scored nine consecutive points, all coming from 3-point range.
Key Stats:
- In the first half Marquette went on three scoring runs that were eight or more points.
- Marquette had 13 assists to Central Michigan’s six in the first half.
- The Golden Eagles had a stretch during the second half where they went 1-for-10 from 3-point range.
Notes:
- First-year guard Chase Ross had a highlight reel dunk in the first half.
- As a team Marquette shot 53% from the field while Central Michigan shot 44.8%.
- Marquette scored 28 points off turnovers.
- Central Michigan had 22 turnovers to Marquette’s 14.
- The Golden Eagles had five players score in double-digits those being Joplin (23), junior forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper (13), first-year forward Ben Gold (11), Ross (11) and junior forward Oso Ighodaro (10).
Quote of the Day:
During the second half, following first-year forward Ben Gold’s dunk the Golden Eagles were given a bench foul.
“It was the first technical I’ve ever seen with a water bottle,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “Our guys, it was an accident. I think our guys got super excited and then someone’s knee hit the water bottle and it went out on the floor. We ask our guys to have great energy on the bench, we ask our guys to give E.G.B.’s so we’ll chalk that tech to an E.G.B.”
Next Up:
Marquette (2-0) will be back on the court Tuesday when it hits the road to play Purdue inside Mackey Arena at 7:30 p.m. CST.
This article was written by Ben Schultz. He can be reached at b[email protected] or on Twitter @benschultz52.
