Chase Ross scored 23 points with six boards and six assists to lead Marquette to a 100-82 victory over the visiting Southern on Wednesday night.
Zaide Lowery, Caedin Hamilton and Sean Jones each added 12 for Marquette. Ben Gold poured in 10, along with a team-high nine rebounds.
Michael Jacobs led Southern with 21 points on 7-for-13 shooting, along with 10 rebounds. AJ Barnes added 17, and DaMariee Jones scored 15.
Similar to Marquette’s season opener against Albany, it was a slow start on the offensive end and a tight first half.
Southern outshot Marquette 47 percent to 39 percent, though the Golden Eagles scored 12 points off of nine Jaguar turnovers. They also made six 3-pointers compared to just two for Southern and went into halftime up 43-37.
Marquette then came out firing in the second half, as the team fired off an early 7-0 run and took a double-digit advantage that it would not relinquish.
Caedin Hamilton scored 10 points in the second half alone, and the Golden Eagles hit eight more 3-pointers in the half, including three from freshman Michael Phillips, which are the first three field goals of his career.
Marquette shot 50 percent from the floor on the night and 16-for-20 from the free-throw line, while Southern shot just 5-for-17 from beyond the arc. The Golden Eagles also dished out 19 assists on the night and forced 13 turnovers.
Marquette head coach Shaka Smart won his 100th game as head coach in his fifth season at the helm of the program.
The Golden Eagles now prepare to take on Indiana in a neutral-site battle in Chicago on Sunday. Southern gets a break from playing Power Five teams as the Jaguars match up with Alcorn State on Saturday.
