Anim tallies 21 points in 82-68 #mubb win over St. John's

MILWAUKEE — Sacar Anim tied his season-high with 21 points to lead the Marquette University men's basketball team to an 82-68 victory over St. John's on Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum.

Marquette (14-5, 4-3 BIG EAST) earned its third straight BIG EAST victory and moved to 7-1 when scoring over 80-or-more points this season.

Senior guard Markus Howard led all scorers with 32 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists. McEwen chipped in 10 points and a season-best nine rebounds while Theo John blocked six shots in a strong defensive effort for the Golden Eagles.

St. John's (12-8, 1-6 BIG EAST), who entered Tuesday's game in dead last in the BIG EAST in 3-pointers made per game (5.6), hit seven of its 17 attempts from long range in the first half and led for most of the first 20 minutes. A 10-2 Golden Eagles run in the final 4:42 of the half, led by two 3-pointers from Markus Howard, sent the home team into the halftime break with a six-point lead at 37-31.

The Golden Eagles built their lead up to as many as 14 points with 12:49 remaining in the second half after Koby McEwen hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the midst of an 11-2 run. SJU fought back throughout the next five minutes with a 15-3 run of their own to cut MU's lead down to just two points at 62-60.

Down the stretch, MU clamped down on defense, holding the Red Storm to just three made field goals in the final 8:08 of the game on the way to a double-figure victory on its home court.

MU limited its opposition to just 36.6 percent (26/71) shooting from the field, marking the tenth time this season they've held their opponent to under 40 percent from the field (10-0 record in those games).

Mustapha Heron (18 points) led all Red Storm scorers while L.J. Figueroa (13 points) and Rasheem Dunn (12 points) were the other two SJU players to reach double-figures in scoring.

BIG PICTURE
St. John's falls into last place in the BIG EAST with a 1-6 conference record. The Red Storm have lost six of their last seven games since starting 11-2 overall.

The Golden Eagles have now won three straight conference games to make their way into fourth place in the BIG EAST. They'll head to Butler for a key clash at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Friday night.

UP NEXT
St. John's: Plays at DePaul on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 1 p.m. CT.

Marquette: Travels to Butler for a game on Friday, Jan. 24 at 8 p.m. CT.