Eastern Illinois Panthers vs Marquette Golden Eagles Match Player Stats On Nov 27, 2020

Freshman Dawson Garcia followed an outstanding collegiate debut with 16 points and eight rebounds as Marquette posted a 75-50 home victory over Eastern Illinois on Friday in Milwaukee, Wis.

Koby McEwen added 14 points and Ohio State transfer D.J. Carton contributed 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists off the bench for the Golden Eagles, who have started 2-0 for the third straight season. They next play Oklahoma State at home in the Big 12-Big East Battle on Tuesday.

Senior Josiah Wallace, who scored his 1,000th career point in Eastern Illinois' 77-67 opening night loss to No. 7 Wisconsin, scored 15 points.

The 6-11 Garcia converted 3-of-4 3-pointers and all three of his free throws. The lanky left-hander finished with 19 points, four rebounds and four assists in Wednesday's 99-57 rout of Arkansas Pine-Bluff.

Garcia scored 12 points in the first half on a trio of 3-pointers and a three-point play with 4:52 left that provided the Golden Eagles a 31-16 lead.

Marquette, who held Arkansas-Pine Bluff to 27 percent shooting, held Eastern Illinois to 25 percent (8 of 32) in the first half and led 38-26 at the break.

Eastern Illinois pulled within 51-41 with 12:26 left in the game on a breakaway dunk by Marvin Johnson, but the Eagles responded with McEwen scoring eight points during an 11-1 run that restored order.

The Panthers, who returned their top six scorers from a season ago, finished shooting 26.2 percent (16 of 61) from the floor.

Panthers guard Mack Smith extended his NCAA-leading active streak of consecutive games with a 3-pointer to 83 games with three makes from beyond the arc en route to 12 points. The senior is five games shy of the all-time NCAA record of 88 by Cory Bradford of Illinois from 1998-2001.

Theo John finished with nine points, nine rebounds and two blocks for Marquette, which improved to 3-0 all-time against the Panthers. The 6-9 John, who averaged just over five points and five rebounds while playing all last season with a broken wrist, has 22 points, 21 rebounds and seven blocks in his first two games this season.

--Field Level Media