CHICAGO — It’s David Joplin’s gym and we were all just watching him hoop in it.
Here he was, after respective 28-point and 21-point performances in Wintrust Arena in the previous two years, on the floor with Golden Eagles (15-2, 6-0 Big East) for the start of overtime on Tuesday night.
After 40 minutes wasn’t enough to decide the game, Joplin made sure the extra five would be.
He opened up the period with back-to-back triples to give Marquette a six-point advantage with four minutes remaining. Then, he hit a pair of free throws to achieve 30 points for the first time in his career, extending the Golden Eagles’ lead to 10 — effectively putting the contest away for good, or so they thought.
Four late triples from Isaiah Rivera got DePaul (9-9, 0-7 Big East) within one point late, but it was to no avail as Jones went down and nailed a free throw to seal the deal on Marquette’s win, 85-83.
Despite shooting 37 percent from the field in the second half, Marquette pulled itself together in the overtime period, shooting 50 percent from the field and going 8-of-10 from the line.
“I don’t know what it is, [but] it feels good to shoot in here,” Joplin said. “I love Chicago, the hotels are great, eat great, sleep great.
“I don’t know what it is, but I love playing here. This is my last time, so I wanted to make it a good one.”
A lackluster first half in which the Golden Eagles’ defense allowed the Blue Demons to score 40 points proved to be a difficult mountain for them to climb. After Joplin nailed a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first half to send Marquette into the break down 40-39, it went into the locker room knowing it needed to clean things up defensively.
“I didn’t think our aggressiveness was good enough in the first half,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “…I actually thought in the second half our guys did a good job of fighting and scrapping and clawing.”
Even after cleaning things up though, DePaul began to hit tough shot after tough shot.
Rivera hit tough shots all night long — especially down the stretch — en route to a 20-point performance. Conor Enright hit difficult shots as well on his way to an 11 point, 11 assist double-double.
“Man, they’ve got a good offensive team. I think Enright is tricky,” Smart said. “And then Blocker, Layden Blocker, he’s a really good driver.
“Obviously, Rivera was on one at the end there, and you know, those were tough shots. But like the bomb he made in the corner on the baseline, out of bounds, he looks like Ray Allen rising up and shooting that.”
Kam Jones struggled from the field Tuesday, shooting just 8-for-21, including going 1-for-10 from deep. However, that one make came at the most important time for Marquette.
He rose up and sunk Marquette’s biggest shot of the night — a 3-pointer with 44.8 seconds to play that made it just a one-point game.
The Memphis, Tennessee native continues to find ways to positively impact the game when he’s not shooting well, dishing out a team-high 11 assists and grabbing a team-high six rebounds.
“In games like this you know, he’s not shooting the best, so where do you go from there?,” Joplin said about Jones. “You can’t fall, you can’t crumble. You got to keep going.
“He rebounded, he passed the ball, he guarded. They tried to go at him for stretches and he stood his ground and made them miss. That’s what you ask for from a leader and he keeps proving himself every game.”
After a Ben Gold fast break dunk the possession after, Enright hit a contested trey to put DePaul back on top 63-61.
Then Jones’ title of biggest shot of the night was abruptly stripped from him .
That was because fresh off an outstanding turnover forced by Stevie Mitchell, Ross hit a 3-pointer with six seconds to play to give the Golden Eagles a two-point lead.
CHASE ROSS IS A DUDE! pic.twitter.com/WHnhf2O5Er
— Marquette Basketball (@MarquetteMBB) January 15, 2025
Ben Gold was subsequently called for goaltending just 2.9 seconds later, sending the game to overtime.
For the first time all season, Marquette’s bench finished the game with zero points. But the Golden Eagles found a way, and this game was a living embodiment of one of the core sayings that has been uttered around the program for the past three and a half years.
Win anyway.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.