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As the Marquette Golden Eagles enter one of the most crowded stretches of their nonconference schedule, they took a step back with a 73-66 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs Saturday afternoon in Milwaukee.
Markus Howard played well again, scoring a game-high 29 points. It was certainly in a less flashy fashion than his scoring against Chicago State, though. Howard had just four three-pointers and was 4-12 from long range. The Golden Eagles went 11-33 from deep, and not being able to get the shot to fall consistently was a big part of their problem.
Marquette’s lack of a true big man also reared its ugly head, as Georgia had 32 points in the paint to Marquette’s 20. 20 of UGA’s 24 successful field goals were two-pointers. Yante Maten led the Bulldogs with 13 points, as he was one of six Georgia players with at least eight points, a testament to their balanced scoring punch.
Despite the poor play offensively, Marquette was in the game until late. They were within two points with two minutes to go and within three with 30 seconds left. It’s certainly a game the Golden Eagles would have liked to win (duh), but losing isn’t a death knell. It just puts added emphasis on next Saturday’s meeting with Wisconsin.