"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Marquette extends DePaul's misery

Marquette did what it had to do tonight and not much else in defeating the DePaul Blue Demons, 76-61. With the win Marquette extended its win streak to 12 games and moved to 20-2 overall and 9-0 in the BIG EAST.

Jerel McNeal led MU with a Wadesque line of 26 points, six assists, four rebounds, five steals and four blocked shots. Read that again. Wesley Matthews finished with 20 points and Dominic James had 15, 13 in the second half. Marquette shot a season-high 57% from the floor tonight.

Will Walker led DePaul with 30. The Blue Demons hit the floor tonight without their best player and leading scorer, Dar Tucker, who injured an ankle in the team shootaround earlier in the day. DePaul remains winless in the BIG EAST (0-10) and 8-15 overall.

Despite the margin of victory, the Golden Eagles played their best ball early and that proved to be enough. MU raced out to a fast 27-9 lead just nine minutes into the game only to let the Blue Demons off the respirator in the final ten minutes of the half. Led by Will Walker the Blue Demons went on a 23-11 run to close to within 42-37 at the break.

In the second half, the Marquette backcourt went to work on defense. Triggered by Dominic James' aggressive play, MU turned DePaul over four times in the first two minutes of the second half as the Golden Eagles built a 56-45 lead with 13:30 to play. From there MU was content to muddle along while maintaining a safe lead over the out-manned Blue Demons for the rest of the evening.

Next up for MU is a road tilt at South Florida on Friday evening.

BTW -- kudos to the Marquette fans at the Bradley Center South tonight........"We Are Marquette" came through loud and clear on the television broadcast during the game's closing minutes. Allstate Arena remains OUR HOUSE.

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1 comment:

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