#MUBB Falls to Georgetown 78-69 in BIG EAST Opener

MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The Marquette University men's basketball team (5-7, 0-1 BIG EAST) fell to Georgetown (8-3, 1-0 BIG EAST) Wednesday evening at Fiserv Forum in the BIG EAST opener.

Sophomore Damarius Owens led the Golden Eagles with a career-high 15 points and six rebounds, while Nigel James Jr. tallied 13 points and five assists, while Royce Parham tallied 12 points on an efficient 5-for-8 shooting.

James Jr. scored six of MU's first nine points, with the Golden Eagles holding a slim 9-8 advantage after a monster block from Ross. The Golden Eagles defense stood strong, forcing a nearly 4.5-minute scoring drought from the Hoyas, while MU extended the lead to 16-10 to keep control of the game. The strong shooting continued, with a trio of triples in a row from Sean Jones, Damarius Owens, and Royce Parham, with another Parham putback extended the lead, 24-16.

The Hoyas offense started to heat up, hitting four-straight shots to take the Golden Eagle lead down to four, 29-25, which extended to a 10-0 run to take a one-point lead. From there, the lead traded places five consecutive times, with the Hoyas hitting a last-second trey to take a 37-33 advantage into the intermission.

Out of the half, Georgetown was aggressive in their approach, getting to the line at a high rate, with the Golden Eagles hanging around thanks to a trey from Stevens and an acrobatic layup from James Jr. to make it 49-41 with 16 minutes to go. Georgetown maintained a healthy advantage, with both teams trading points and rejections. MU cut the deficit to five with under eight to go, 62-57, thanks to a spin-move lay-in from James Jr., however, a nearly three-minute scoring drought from MU and a burst from Georgetown was enough to put the game out of reach for Marquette, falling 79-68.

UP NEXT

The Golden Eagles head to Omaha to take on Creighton this Saturday, Dec. 20, for a 7:30 p.m. CT tipoff.

NOTABLES

Marquette fell to 25-15 against the Hoyas all-time.
Sophomore Royce Parham made his first career start after 45 previous appearances as a reserve.
Damarius Owens eclipsed his career-high in points (15) and tied it in field goals made (five) and rebounds (five). Owens had scored a total of 23 points in his first nine games.
Senior Chase Ross snapped his 11-game double-figure scoring streak, scoring just four points, his lowest since scoring five against New Mexico on Mar. 21, 2025 in the NCAA Tournament First Round last season.
Ross moved to 10th all-time in career steals (166).
Nigel James Jr. established a new career-high in blocks with two.
Georgetown's Isaiah Abraham is the son of former Marquette player Faisal (Fy-sell) Abraham (1993-97), who still ranks fourth in program history with 172 blocks.