LSU vs. Marquette final score: Golden Eagles take down Tigers to finish third in Maui Invitational

Backed by Andrew Rowsey’s 30 points on 16-16 free throw shooting, the Marquette Golden Eagles will return to Milwaukee with their heads held high after defeating the LSU Tigers, 94-84, for a third place finish in the Maui Invitational.

Rowsey had 24 of his 30 points in the second half of the high-scoring clash, which saw one-time Georgetown commit Tremont Waters excel for the Tigers, as well. Waters had 39 points and was the main reason LSU hung around for so long.

At the end of the day, Marquette had a better supporting cast around its main scorer. Sam Hauser finished the night with 20 points after setting the tone early on and hitting his first four threes. Hauser and Rowsey combined for a 9-13 total from long range.

Markus Howard struggled a bit, with just 10 points on 3-9 shooting, but led the Golden Eagles with six rebounds. It shows that for teams to beat Marquette they’ll have to slow down both Rowsey and Howard, which is no easy feat.

Sacir Anim also had a great night, recording a career-high 12 points in 24 minutes of action before fouling out. If Anim can continue to contribute, the Golden Eagles become that much deeper and more lethal with bench options.

For the Golden Eagles to go down to Maui and come back 2-1 with a third place finish and their lone loss coming to a top 10 team in the nation has to be seen as a success. After the loss to Purdue, these games took on a far higher importance, and Marquette delivered. They now return to Milwaukee for games against two low-majors in Eastern Illinois and Chicago State before the schedule starts to pick up again.