Marquette shakes off rusty start to beat Albany

Chase Ross scored 15 points and dished five assists to lead Marquette to a season-opening 80-53 victory over Albany on Monday night in Milwaukee.

Eleven players who touched the floor scored for Marquette, with Zaide Lowery adding 13 and Damarius Owens scoring 11. Marquette shot 41.4% from the floor on the night.

Amir Lindsey, the lone key returner from last year's Albany squad, led all scorers with 20 points on 7-for-17 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Okechukwu Okeke added 10 points and seven boards for the Great Danes, who shot just 28.4% on the night and 5-for-30 from beyond the arc.

Neither team started the season off hot offensively. Freshman Adrien Stevens hit two 3-pointers for Marquette to put them up 12-7 at the under-12 timeout after both teams shot below 25% prior to that.

It didn't get much better throughout the half, as Marquette went into the break up 30-21. Both teams shot below 33% in the half and hit just three 3-pointers apiece, but Marquette made seven free throws to Albany's zero.

In the first half, Sean Jones scored his first points in nearly 22 months (since January 2024) for Marquette. He tore his ACL during his sophomore year and could not come back last season. Jones finished with six points.

Linsdey opened the second half with a 3-pointer to bring the Great Danes within six, but Marquette answered with a 14-0 run. It was Lowery and Tre Norman dominating the start of the half with seven points apiece in the first 10 minutes.

The Golden Eagles had a scare with 13 minutes to go when freshman Nigel James Jr. went down with what looked like a painful injury and was carried off the court. However, he was able to re-enter the game later in the half.

From there, Marquette went into cruise control. The Golden Eagles shot 51.9% from the floor in the second half (41.4% for the game), and they knocked down 27 of their 39 free-throw attempts on the night (69%).

--Field Level Media