The Quick & The Dirty: Marquette 101, Houston Baptist 79

Behind a first half explosion from senior center Luke Fischer, YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles withstood a lame and boring second half on their way to a 101-79 victory over Houston Baptist on Saturday night.

Fischer had 17 points and eight rebounds in just 11 first half minutes to power MU out to a 56-33 lead at the break. Marquette led by as many as 26 early in the second half, but HBU wobbled that down to 17 points on a jumper from Josh Ibarra with 8:38 left in the second half. It was that nine point gradual carving that ended up leaving the Huskies with a one point advantage in the second half as the Golden Eagles never got the lead back above the 23 point margin from halftime.

That’s all the energy I can muster talking about the events of this game. Let’s talk about two notable issues that transpired. First, Fischer was fouled going up for a shot with 6:40 left in the game. He immediately grabbed his surgically repaired left shoulder, called for a sub, left the game, and never returned. He did immediately head to the locker room at that point and he was back on the bench long before the game was over. Fischer spoke to the media after the game and said he was fine, but this is the second time that Fischer’s had a problem with that shoulder this season already. He landed on the shoulder during the Howard game, sending a rush of panic through the Marquette faithful, but he eventually returned to play in that game. If Fischer is going to start playing like he’s afraid of causing injury to that shoulder, it’s going to make for a very long season for the Golden Eagles.

The other issue is Katin Reinhardt and his shooting. The graduate transfer from USC went 2-for-8 overall tonight, including an outrageously horrible 0-for-6 from behind the three point line. Four of Reinhardt’s misses came in the second half, when the outcome was never really in doubt, but as we talked about in the recap of the exhibition game, this team can not survive long term with someone just jacking up shots when they clearly do not having it going on that particular night. “That particular night” is turning into “this season” for Reinhardt, who drops to 7-for-28 (25%) on three point shots this season, and 16-for-58 (28%) overall.

Katin, if you’re reading this: KNOCK IT OFF.

Up Next: The Golden Eagles are off until Wednesday, when they’ll host Western Carolina. The Catamounts are 2-4 on the season after defeating Jackson State on Saturday. Marquette will be wearing their turquoise Nike N7 uniforms for that game.