Marquette rallies to defeat Providence

On a day in which the legendary Dwyane Wade was honored, the Marquette Golden Eagles soared once again.

The Golden Eagles picked up their 16th win of the season in their 79-68 victory over the visiting Providence Friars. The win pushes MU to 5-1 in conference play, while Providence falls down to 1-4 and to the bottom of the Big East standings.

The win for MU was mostly guided by a huge rally in the second half. Marquette dropped 35 points on Providence in the final 10 minutes of the game and 54 total in the second half after scoring just 25 in the first. Providence could only score 35 points in the second half including just 12 in the first 10 minutes, which followed up a 12-point showing in the final 10 minutes of the first half.

With D-Wade watching, Markus Howard and Sam Hauser both stood out in big ways. Howard was inefficient, but while he was 4-for-15 from the floor, he went 14-for-16 from the free throw line. Markus also had nine rebounds, eight defensive, and had three assists and a steal.

Sam, meanwhile, was certainly not ineffective at all. He racked up a game-high 25 points while shooting 8-for-13 from the floor. That included a mark of 4-for-7 from beyond the 3-point arc, with his four 3-pointers being a game-high, as well. Sam added seven rebounds, all on the defensive glass, four assists — a team-high — and a block with no turnovers despite playing 37 minutes of action.

Joey Hauser meanwhile had 11 points on a mark of 4-for-5, with a 2-for-2 day from long range. Joey, Sam and Markus were the lone players to get into double figures on the day. But, Ed Morrow nearly got there, as he finished with nine points.

Nate Watson once again showed out, as the sophomore big man seems to be finding his step again. Watson had 21 points and went 8-for-14 from the floor and 5-for-6 from the free throw line. Alpha Diallo followed him with 16 points of his own and shot 7-for-15 from the field. No other Friar got to double figures, as Jimmy Nichols Jr. and Isaiah Jackson were the only close ones with seven each.

Makai Ashton-Langford had merely two points but contributed elsewhere with five boards and a game-high seven assists. The Friars got 19 assists on the day, seven of them belonging to MAL while Maliek White had four of them and Nichols recorded three.

Despite that, they still fell to the Golden Eagles, mostly due to a poor mark from beyond the arc. They shot just 21.1 percent on 19 attempts, while Marquette had a 45.5 percent effort from deep. The 10 turnovers compared to Marquette’s six didn’t help matters either, nor did their 52.2 percent day from the FT line to MU’s 92 percent performance.

The win for MU gives them five in a row after dropping their conference opener to the St. John’s Red Storm. There are no off days in the Big East, but they are in a very good spot right now with their looming matchups. They host the DePaul Blue Demons next, as DePaul is coming in off a win over the Seton Hall Pirates.

Providence, meanwhile, will hope to get their second victory in Big East play. To do so though, they’ll have to win at Cintas Center against the Xavier Musketeers. The Friars are 0-5 at Cintas Center since Xavier joined the Big East, so they’ll have to hope their fortunes change in more ways than one.