The #14 Marquette Golden Eagles didn’t want to take anything for granted on the road in Big East Conference play on Wednesday night on the road against doormat DePaul Blue Demons. Marquette took down DePaul 86-73 in the game and the Golden Eagles improved to 14-3 on the season with the win.
Marquette improved to 5-3 in conference play and they are currently in fourth place in the Big East. As for DePaul, they fall to 3-16 overall and 0-8 in conference play. The Blue Demons fired Tony Stubblefield as head coach a few days ago and they are looking to rebuild the basketball program entirely. Matt Brady took over as the interim head coach.
One of the more interesting stats in this contest was that Marquette and DePaul shot nearly identical from three-point land. The Golden Eagles were 45.5% from three and the Blue Demons were 45.8% from three.
Marquette had four different players in double figures in this contest. It is no surprise that the Marquette Golden Eagles play well when Tyler Kolek scores the basketball and they will need that to continue to happen in conference play. Kolek led the way with 22 points, two rebounds, and seven assists.
Oso Ighodaro recorded another double-double with 19 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists. David Joplin had his best game of the season with 21 points for Marquette and Stevie Mitchell also added 12 points. Joplin made six three-pointers in the game for Marquette and he spoke to the media after the game was over.
David Joplin told the AP after the game was over:
“That’s why we work so hard. Just try to be unguardable. Usually teams try to take away our 3s, so we try to get to the paint as much as possible. We’ve been focusing on that and emphasizing that, and then today, they just left us open.”
Head coach Shaka Smart was proud of the way his team played on Wednesday night against the DePaul Blue Demons. Smart also told the AP after the game by saying:
“You kind of take what the other team’s giving you. They played some zone early in the game. The guys did a good job finding each other. We got a lot of good looks up. I thought we got some great contributions from a variety of guys on our team.”
DePaul Blue Demons Have Three Score in Double Figures Against the Marquette Golden Eagles
Despite the loss, they had three players score in double figures. Jalen Terry scored 22 points, grabbed six rebounds, and recorded three assists. Jeremiah Oden scored 16 points for the Blue Demons and Jaden Henley also added 10 points for DePaul.
The DePaul Blue Demons’ defense was not very good in this game against a Marquette Golden Eagles offense. Marquette was able to knock down their shots and they are going to need to do that moving forward in the Big East Conference against tougher competition than DePaul.
