Rowsey rains buckets
Sharpshooter sparks offense
Marquette redshirt junior Andrew Rowsey spent most of Wednesday’s overtime win over Seton Hall glued to the bench, playing just 3 minutes because freshman Markus Howard was doing so well.
Given an early opportunity Saturday against DePaul, Rowsey made the most of it. He poured in 19 of his season-high 24 points in the final 9 minutes of the first half, sparking one of Marquette’s best offensive stretches of the season and helping lay the foundation for an 83-58 blowout victory at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
“Yeah, you could say that,” Rowsey said when asked if Wednesday’s game provided him with motivation. “I mean, I know my role. I know that each night, like I’ve told you before plenty of times, it could be anybody. Me and Coach, he told me that wasn’t going to be my night but keep my head up because any game could be mine. So that’s what I did, just looked forward to the next one.”
The Golden Eagles (12-5, 3-2 Big East) got off to a shaky start, trailing for most of the opening 10 minutes. As he did Wednesday, Howard led the way on offense with seven early points, but he collected a pair of fouls in just over a minute midway through the half, prompting coach Steve Wojciechowski to send Rowsey into the game with 8:58 remaining and Marquette trailing, 22-20.
That’s when everything changed and the Golden Eagles never
looked back.
Rowsey finished a press break by putting in a floater to tie the game. On Marquette’s next trip, graduate transfer Katin Reinhardt kicked a pass out to Rowsey at the top of the key for a three-pointer that beat the shot clock. After a timeout called by DePaul (8-10, 1-4), sophomore Haanif Cheatham tossed a cross-court pass to Rowsey in the corner for a catch-and-shoot three to extend his personal run to 8-0.
Those buckets opened the floodgates for a 32-9 stretch heading into halftime. Including a missed three by Howard and one made by freshman Sam Hauser just before Rowsey entered the game, Marquette went 13 of 16 from the field over the final 10 minutes, going 12 for 20 from beyond the arc and making 9 three-pointers in a row leading into the half as the Golden Eagles led, 52-31.
Marquette’s 12 firsthalf
three-pointers were the program’s most in Big East regular-season play. The 52 first-half points also were a program high in a Big East regular-season game.
Rowsey made five of those first-half threes. In the final minute alone, the 5-foot-10 guard hit a pullup in transition off a behind-the-back pass from redshirt junior Duane Wilson and beat the shot clock with 6-foot-10 center Levi Cook in his face. After missing his first shot early in the first half, Rowsey connected on his next nine to finish with 24 points on 9-of-10 shooting, including 6 of 7 from long range.
“When it feels like that it feels like the ball’s a rock and the hoop’s an ocean,” Rowsey said. “I was just shooting the ball doing what I do and trying to get everybody else involved.”
While the excitement in the Bradley Center centered around the threepointers raining down, Wojciechowski saw something else during the firsthalf barrage that left him thrilled.
“I saw great ball movement and great ball movement led to some open
shots and where our guys were able to set their feet and shoot in-rhythm shots,” he said. “We played really unselfish during that spurt, some of the most unselfish basketball we’ve played all year.”
In the final 10 minutes of the first half, Marquette assisted on 10 of its 13 made baskets. For the game, the Golden Eagles recorded 22 assists on 30 field goals, their secondhighest assist rate of the season (73.3%) behind their win over Howard, in which they had 22 assists on 29 field goals (75.7%).
The Golden Eagles’ defense continued its upward trend, holding DePaul’s leading scorers, senior Billy Garrett Jr. and sophomore Eli Cain — both of whom entered averaging more than 15 points per game — to just 12 and seven points, respectively.
“I thought we did a good job defensively to hold them to 38% shooting and we were able to complete our defensive possessions tonight better with rebounds,” Wojciechowski said.
Rowsey wasn’t the only one who excelled off the bench. Reinhardt had 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting while going 3 of 5 from long range and dishing out four assists. Wilson chipped in nine points and a career-high seven assists.