Marquette races by Loyola (MD) as Markus Howard makes history

Markus Howard made his way into the Marquette history books.

The Golden Eagles star scored 38 points in MU’s season-opening win over the Loyola-MD Greyhounds. And with those 38 points, Howard became the program’s all-time leading scorer as he hit the 1,988-point mark.

Jerel McNeal, who was the program’s all-time leading scorer before Howard’s 38-point outburst, even delivered a congratulatory message to the prodigious hooper:

Tuesday night’s performance for Howard was also the 17th time he’s hit at least 30 points or more in his career. So, yeah, he’s pretty good!

Anyhow, this was a dominant win for Marquette. They never trailed and were up by 21-0 at the 13:49 mark. Yes, 21-0. Seriously. That happened. They were also up 42-10 at one point, and 44-15 at the half. Writing these scores out makes them seem all the more absurd. Loyola was able to hit the 50-point mark at the 1:31 mark of the second half, and got to their final total of 53 points at the 1:05 mark. This may be one of the more superior performances by one team over another that you might find this year. I know it’s the season opener. But sheesh!

Sacar Anim and Koby McEwen would join Markus Howard in double figures, as Anim and McEwen each put up 11 points on the night. McEwen went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and 4-for-8 from the floor. Anim was a little more inefficient as he shot 5-for-11 from the floor, but it’s the first game of the season. There’s plenty of time to shake that out.

The only other players to come close to double figures were Greg Elliott and Theo John. Elliott scored eight points while John put up seven of his own. John had a very good night as he also pulled down eight rebounds, a game-high on both sides. The aforementioned McEwen followed him closely with seven boards, and Ed Morrow had six boards to go with his six points.

Marquette will now shift gears and focus their attention on their looming matchup with the #23 Purdue Boilermakers next Wednesday.