#MUBB Continues BIG EAST Play At Georgetown Saturday

The Marquette University men's basketball team (12-5, 2-3 BIG EAST) continues BIG EAST Conference play at Georgetown (12-6, 2-3 BIG EAST) Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. CT in Capital One Arena. FS1 will feature the national television broadcast, with Jeff Levering (play-by-play) and Tarik Turner (analyst) calling the action. Following Saturday's outing, the Golden Eagles will return home to host St. John's on Jan. 21 for the program's annual Al's Night honoring legendary head coach Al McGuire, who played at STJ.

Narrow Margin Separates All-Time Series

Marquette owns a slim 14-13 advantage in the all-time series, with each team winning on the road in the home-and-home series in 2018-19.

All but two of the matchups have come since Marquette joined the BIG EAST in 2005-06.

The programs first met during the 1941-42 campaign and the Hoyas were able to claim a 35-34 victory. The next meeting didn't come until the 1971-72 season and Marquette posted a winning 88-44 decision. The series resumed in 2005-06 and the squads have met on 24 occasions since that year.

In the most recent matchup on March 9, 2019 at Fiserv Forum, guard Markus Howard led all scorers with 28 points and forward Brendan Bailey added 11 points, but it wasn't enough in an 86-84 win by the Hoyas.

Shared Scoring Leads To Win Over Xavier

Marquette had four players finish with double figures in scoring for the first time in BIG EAST play in the win over Xavier on Wednesday night.

Guard Markus Howard led all scorers with 35 points, but Sacar Anim, Theo John and Koby McEwen all joined him with at least 10 points, giving MU its first quartet of double-digit scorers since the non-conference finale against Central Arkansas on Dec. 28.

In the team's previous two outings prior to Xavier, only Howard and forward Brendan Bailey (19 vs. Providence) managed to crack the 10-point plateau.

Anim Returns To Double-Figure Scoring

After reaching double figures in points in a career-best seven-straight games, senior forward Sacar Anim hadn't netted more than nine points in three-consecutive contests heading into the Xavier game.

The Minneapolis, Minnesota native responded with 12 points in 36 minutes of action Wednesday night and also grabbed eight rebounds, a season-best total that was just one short of his career high. He also found time to chip in three steals, two assists and a pair of blocked shots to have an impact on both ends of the court.

Anim, who redshirted in 2016-17 after playing as a freshman, is second on the team in scoring at 12.0 points per game (20th in BIG EAST). All of his season statistics in 2019-20 are improved averages from previous seasons.

Marquette Hitting Boards At Both Ends In BIG EAST

Marquette has been hitting the boards at a high rate in league play, perfectly illustrated by Wednesday's final 46-30 advantage on the boards against Xavier.

In BIG EAST games through Jan. 15, the Golden Eagles rank second in offensive rebounds (12.8 orpg.) and defensive boards (29.6 drpg.). It's been rebounding by committee for MU, which features five different players averaging almost 5.0 caroms per contest.

Senior center Jayce Johnson, who has played just 16.3 minutes per game through five league outings, is chipping in 6.8 rebounds per game in limited minutes. Of his 27 boards in four games, 13 have come at the offensive end.