Marquette escapes Northern Illinois, improve to 8-3.

Another game, another close call for the Marquette Golden Eagles.

This time, they used 58 points from Sam Hauser, Markus Howard, and Andrew Rowsey to pull away late and defeat the Northern Illinois Huskies 79-70 Monday night.

The Golden Eagles jumped out to a quick 14-4 lead within the first five minutes of the game, but struggled defensively throughout the rest of the half, resulting in a back and forth affair. The Huskies would take their first lead with 6:36 left in the opening frame on a Dante Thorpe jumper to give them the lead 27-25.

It was more of the same in the second half as the game would switch hands continuously. Northern Illinois would get their largest lead of the game with 14:46 left as they led 49-45.

But the Eagles, as they've done all season, responded with the three ball.

Although only shooting 9-30 from behind the arc, a Jamal Cain three gave Marquette a 54-51 lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the game.

Northern Illinois was led by Eugene German who scored 26 points and added 3 rebounds.

Marquette finishes its non-conference slate of the schedule Thursday as they welcome American University to Milwaukee at 7 PM.