The Golden Eagles snap their three game losing streak, but it certainly wasn’t fun to watch from beginning to end.
Let’s do the fun-adjacent part first here. #18 Marquette held DePaul to a 45% effective field goal shooting night largely on the back of a 4-for-24 (17%) three-point shooting effort and racked up a turnover on more than 20% of DePaul’s possessions to drive the bus to a much needed victory. The win snaps a three game losing streak, which matched the longest streak in Big East play since Shaka Smart’s first three games in the league back in 2021-22.
Okay, now the part that is very much separated from fun. Marquette shot just 16% on three-pointers in this game and before Stevie Mitchell sent home six freebies in the final minute of the game, the Golden Eagles were shooting 57% (8-for-14) from the charity stripe. This was a two point game at the half even though MU was up eight, 30-22, with 1:53 left before intermission.
Almost zero fun.
It looked like the Golden Eagles had solved their problems after halftime. After DePaul tied the game up coming out of the locker room, a Kam Jones jumper triggered an 18-2 run for the home team. Marquette got a kill, gave up a layup to Layden Blocker, then got what is marked as nine straight stops on the KenPom.com win probability chart but that’s because CJ Gunn missed two free throws. Officially no points on the board, but the rule of kills and skunks and dead skunks is that you can’t send the opponent to the free throw line. The way Marquette scores it, the streak came to an end on eight straight stops.
But still: 54-38 with the clock winding under the 11 minute mark. MU’s offense went to sleep for more than a minute — remember the 16% on threes? — and a Kam Jones triple made it 57-41 with 8:07 to go. Seems like it’s in control, right? 16 point lead, getting comfy, you get the idea, right?
Boom: 13-5 run by DePaul over the next five minutes.
MU’s entire offensive output for five straight minutes was a tip in from Ben Gold off his own missed dunk, a Tre Norman layup, and a Tre Norman front half of a pair of free throws. And so, CJ Gunn hit a three with 2:08 to go and it was an eight point game, 62-54.
I want to be clear, because some of you out there might be operating under some past experience and knowledge: This is not a out of control garbage fire DePaul team. This is a perfectly average bad high major DePaul team…. that’s missing two starters from the first meeting between these two teams this season. If you do not put them into the earth, they will just keep coming, and that’s what happened here.
If you are like me, you suddenly became desperately afraid of Isaiah Rivera after he nearly single handedly forced a second overtime session at Wintrust.
But Marquette got the stops they needed, and that eight point just kept right on trucking until there was under a minute to play. DePaul was running out of options, and they had to foul to extend the game. That’s where Stevie Mitchell cashed in for six of his 17 points, and DePaul couldn’t get any closer.
Kam Jones led Marquette in scoring in this game with 19, and along the way, he passed Lazar Hayward to become the #3 scorer in Marquette history. That was also the game high, and he had the game high in assists with four as well. Mitchell was MU’s only other double-digit scorer, although David Joplin missed out on a double-double with seven points (on 3-for-11 shooting!) and 10 rebounds.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and NBC Sports?
Up Next: A week off first of all, and hopefully being able to unplug for a day or two or three does the squad a world of good. Marquette will return to action next week Tuesday night when Seton Hall comes to town for an 8pm start on CBS Sports Network. It will be Jim Chones Night, as the Marquette icon will have his jersey hung in the rafters….. or rather revealed in the rafters, as it’s definitely already up there shrouded in black. The Pirates are 6-18 on the season and 1-12 in Big East action. They’ll have to host UConn fresh off the Huskies’ Tuesday night victory over #24 Creighton before SHU heads out west to Wisconsin.
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