The Marquette Golden Eagles started the 2026 season on the right foot, taking care of business against the Mercyhurst Lakers, 78-43. Sophomore big man Joshua Clark led the Golden Eagles with 18 points, six rebounds, and three blocks, while Junior forward Royce Parham finished with 16 points. Jake Lemelman poured in 16 points for the Lakers and was the only Mercyhurst player to score in double figures.
Game Recap
It was all Golden Eagles from the jump, and Sananda Fru made things happen on both ends early. He scored Marquette’s first six points, then came through with a monster block later on. The first non-Fru bucket-getter was Royce Parham, who threw down a two-handed jam. Mercyhurst finally got on the board when Shane Kirker scored a layup. Marquette’s lead ballooned to 11 after a three from Parham, forcing a Lakers timeout. All three new transfers made their debuts in the opening minutes, including Colin Porter, who is currently in a legal battle for his eligibility to play college hoops. He made an immediate impact, feeding an assist to Joshua Clark on the fast break and grabbing two steals. By the 10-minute mark of the first half, Mercyhurst was still in single digits, while Marquette led 20-8.
The Lakers couldn’t get anything going against the Golden Eagles’ stifling defense. Mercyhurst went scoreless for five minutes and 46 seconds, as Marquette pushed out to a 27-8 edge. Markus Maxwell-Grimes finally got the Lakers into double digits after deflecting and stealing the ball off a pass from Damarius Owens. They strung together a couple of buckets, but Clark interrupted it with an alley-oop dunk off a feed from Nolan Minessale. Both sides struggled to put the ball in the basket after that, with the Golden Eagles getting only two free throws to go as they headed into halftime up 36-14.
Things didn’t change much when the second half began, as Marquette scored the first 10 points to push the lead to 32. After going scoreless in the first half, Nigel James, Jr. got on the board with a free throw, then followed with three straight buckets, including a three. Clark continued to have a strong game into the second half, scoring another seven points, including another alley-oop slam, this time from Michael Phillips. He then followed up with a block, keeping the game at 60-27.
In the final 10 minutes, the Golden Eagles reached their largest lead of the game, 40 points, after Phillips drained a corner three-pointer. As the game wore on, we got another debut as sophomore Ian Miletic played in a college game for the first time after seeing some time in the preseason. Nash Walker also made his collegiate debut and scored his first points. Mercyhurst got a couple more three-pointers before heading out of Fiserv Forum, and the Golden Eagles went on to win by 35 points.
Stat That Stood Out
Despite the Golden Eagles’ dominance all night, they struggled to get the ball to go from beyond the arc and the free-throw line, especially in the first half. In the first 20 minutes, they shot just 2-for-13 from three and 8-for-15 from the charity stripe before finishing 4-for-21 from three and 16-for-26 from the free-throw line.
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