The Quick & The Dirty: Marquette 94, LSU 84

YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles finished in third place in the 2017 Maui Jim Maui Invitational thanks to a 94-84 victory over LSU on Wednesday night in Hawaii. MU advances to 3-2 with the win after going 2-1 way out west with the loss coming in a relatively competitive game against #6 Wichita State.

The two big contributors for the Golden Eagles in the game were Sam Hauser and Andrew Rowsey. Hauser got Marquette off to a lightning quick start, scoring 14 points on 5-for-5 shooting before the first media timeout of the game to give his team a 19-13 lead at that point. Insanely, Hauser would not hit a field goal until just about the six minute mark of the first half and ended up missing his final four shots of the game.

That’s why it’s great that Marquette has Andrew Rowsey on the roster. The redshirt senior from Virginia was a machine in the second half, scoring 24 of his team high 30 points after intermission, and perhaps more impressively, he got 16 of them on free throws. Rowsey didn’t shoot a freebie in the first half, but connected on every single one he attempted in the second half. He got eight alone in the final two minutes of the game, which was pretty important as MU finished the first 38 minutes of the game with just a six point lead.

How did Marquette only have a six point margin at that point, even though Rowsey had scored 22 and Hauser had tossed in another 20? Welllllllll....... Tremont Waters was baaaaaanananas for the Tigers. The former Georgetown commit had a game high 39 points in the game, split with 22 in the first half and 17 in the second. He was the only LSU player doing anything particularly interesting on offense, shooting 13-for-22 overall and 5-for-11 from long range. Waters also found time for two rebounds, five assists, and five steals, essentially single-handedly keeping the Tigers active participants in the game, which was a one or two possession game for most of the second half.

Player of the Game: Oh, you’d better believe it’s Andrew Rowsey, and it’s because......

Plays of the Game: ..... LSU fans were treated to not one, but TWO instances of #TheThing. The first one broke the ice on the second half, pushing MU’s halftime lead from two to five. The second occurrence came with 5:45 left in the game, as Rowsey’s deception against former Marquette recruit Galen Alexander resulted in three freebies and MU leading by 14. It also kicked off a run where Rowsey scored 12 straight Marquette points to fend off LSU down the stretch.

How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN?

Up Next: Marquette will be back in action again on Monday night when they return to the BMO Harris Bradley Center to host Eastern Illinois. The Panthers are 1-3 on the season and will host Division 3 Fontbonne University on Friday before heading to Milwaukee.