Howard steals the show as MU rolls

Markus Howard looked much more comfortable in his second regular-season game at Fiserv Forum.

The junior guard scored 37 points on 10-of-16 shooting as Marquette dominated Bethune-Cookman, 92-59, on Saturday afternoon.

Howard sank 7 of 10 three-pointers and also had eight rebounds and five assists for the Golden Eagles (2-0).

“Prior to the game, Coach Wojo (Steve Wojciechowski) and I talked a lot about me continuing to be aggressive,” Howard said. “Me transitioning to point guard this year, he still wants me to maintain being aggressive (in looking for his shot).”

Widely acknowledged as one of the top shooters in college basketball, Howard was only 5 of 16, including 2 of 12 on three-pointers, in MU’s season-opening victory over Maryland-Baltimore County.

Howard missed his first two shots against Bethune-Cookman before connecting on a driving layup 3 minutes 20 seconds into the game.

He didn’t score again until he pulled up on a fast break and nailed a threepointer that gave MU a 15-11 lead with 10:44 remaining in the first half.

That ignited Howard’s confidence and a red-hot Howard is bad news for opponents.

He scored 21 points in the final 10 minutes of the first half. His 26 points at the break almost equaled BethuneCookman’s total as MU took a 51-27 lead into the locker room.

“Markus is an explosive offensive player,” Wojciechowski said. “I was never concerned about his shooting. He’s a guy that the law of averages is going to average out. And certainly today he got going and really created some separation in the game early.”

Howard’s shooting numbers certainly stood out, but the 5-foot-11 guard also pulled down eight rebounds for the second straight game.

“Knowing that guards don’t really crash the boards at my size, I want to bring a different dimension to my game,” Howard said. “Getting in there with the bigger defenders, being aggressive.

“It helps our offense if I’m in there grabbing rebounds; that’s easier for our fast break to get started. When I’m able to get rebounds like that I’m able to run and my guys can run the wings and I’m able to hit them and they can make plays.”

MU did commit 22 turnovers against the Wildcats (0-2). The Golden Eagles had 11 miscues against UMBC.

“Certainly one of the things that drive me crazy are turnovers,” Wojciechowski said. “And right now we’re shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit. Because if you look at our shooting percentages when we don’t turn it over, we’re a pretty good offensive team.

“We have to clean that up and we will. And I think day after day we’ll get better at it and obviously that’s got to be a point of emphasis.”

MU was also strong defensively, holding Bethune-Cookman to 20-of-69 shooting (29 percent).

Junior big man Ed Morrow, a transfer from Nebraska, was an active interior presence with three blocks in just over 18 minutes.