The Quick & The Dirty: #11 Marquette 76, Providence 58

On Saturday, Marquette headed out to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for their sixth Big East road victory of the season. If they were successful in acquiring it, it would be the first time in program history that the Golden Eagles had reached six wins on the road in the Big East.

Boy oh boy oh boy, did they ever get it.

Five Golden Eagles scored at least 11 points as MU shot 55% from the field and 48% from behind the arc on their way to a 76-58 victory over Providence. With the win, MU is now 23-4 overall and 12-2 in Big East play.

It doesn’t get old to keep typing that out.

This was an impressively well-rounded performance from the Golden Eagles. They played great on offense and great on defense. The scoring burden was spread all around the team with no shortage of guys making big plays at various points of the game.

Things officially turned in Marquette’s favor around the 13 minute mark of the first half. Joey Hauser and Sam Hauser scored on consecutive possessions for Marquette to give them a four point lead, and a wee bit later, Joey dropped one in to make it a six point margin. It was a 7-0 run for Marquette that turned into a 12-2 run after Sacar Anim came up with a steal, got fouled while 95% finished with a dunk, and calmly canned his freebie. 8:08 remaining, Marquette up 21-12. MU used another 6-0 run to ward off Providence, and they ended up going into the locker room up 11.

The younger Hauser had MU’s first two baskets of the second half, both on triples. You think his slump is over now? Providence did fight back, eventually drawing the lead from 14 on that first Hauser three-pointer down to just seven. And then: Thrusters engaged!

Buckets from Anim on opposite sides of a Maliek White turnover kicked off a 12-2 run and the lead was out to 17 when it was done. There was still 12:08 to go, but the Golden Eagles never let off the gas. Markus Howard hit one of his two threes in the game to give Marquette their first 20 point margin of the game, and BOY WAS IT EVER WILD. Check this out:

YEP!

That one was the third of four straight possessions for Marquette that ended in a three-pointer for the Golden Eagles. It was a 14 point game before it started, and a 22 point margin when it was done.

There’s your ball game, pretty much. Providence didn’t just roll over, trimming the lead back down to 13 and 14 points here and there, but MU punched back to close with the 18 point win.

MU was led by 18 points each from Sam Hauser and Sacar Anim, with Anim doing a lot of his scoring in the early going to keep the Golden Eagles going back and forth with the Friars. The elder Hauser added 13 rebounds and two blocks to his day for an all-around great performance. Joey Hauser was pretty good, too, putting together 15 points, seven rebounds, and two assists. Ed Morrow was a big presence, getting 11 points and five rebounds while Theo John was confined by fouls to just 17 minutes.

After putting up 52 at the Dunk last year, Markus Howard shot just 2-for-12 from the field and finished with 14 points, three rebounds, and three assists. He either injured his groin early in this game or re-aggravated the injury that he suffered late against Butler when the Bulldogs were needlessly fouling with less than a minute to play. I choose to believe the latter, as I’m still annoyed at BU head coach LaVall Jordan for how he approached the end to that game.

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

Up Next: Moment of truth time. MU will be off until Wednesday when they make the trip to eastern Pennslyvania to play Villanova at The Finn. The Golden Eagles will not be able to clinch a Big East regular season championship with a win, but they could give themselves a two game margin over the Wildcats in the loss column with three games left.