The Golden Eagles jumped on the Blue Demons in the first half, and DePaul’s coaching staff might have decided this one.
There were several defining moments early on in Marquette women’s basketball’s 78-59 victory over DePaul in MU’s Big East opener for the 2024-25 season. First, there’s DePaul scoring leader Jorie Allen missing her first four shots of the game, all in the first two minutes and 30 seconds of the game. Second, there was Allen getting whistled for an offensive foul after missing those four shots. Third, there was Allen taking on her second foul at the 6:02 mark of the first quarter and subbing out.
Finally, there was Marquette opening up a 13-2 lead as the clock wound under the four minute mark of the first quarter. That’s the most important part, let’s be clear. DePaul was handing themselves problems in the early goings, and the fact of the matter is that the Golden Eagles pounced all over the Blue Demons.
Allen’s early shooting struggles transferred to her teammates as she sat out the rest of the first quarter. The Blue Demons shot 3-for-23 from the field in the first 10 minutes, and let’s be honest about why: Marquette gave up 12 offensive rebounds. That’s really bad! But ultimately, this did not hurt the Golden Eagles, as they led 18-8 at the end of the period.
There’s one more defining moment of this game, and it’s a 10 minute long moment. DePaul interim head coach Jill Pizzotti decided to keep Jorie Allen on the bench for the entirety of the second quarter. This was probably a mistake, as DePaul’s shot selection was just not good without Allen on the floor and Marquette kept the Blue Demons at arm’s length for the first four minutes of the period. MU then went on a 17-4 run to get out to a 19 point lead, and only a three-pointer with six seconds left in the half from Taylor Johnson-Matthews managed to save a little bit of face for DePaul. Yes, DePaul shot 47% from the field in the quarter…. But also no one but Johnson-Matthews scored after the six minute mark of the second quarter and Marquette solved their defensive rebounding problem.
So now it’s a 43-27 game at intermission, and hey, look at that Pizzotti put Allen back in for the second half and she ran wild! 10-14 from the field, all inside the arc, all of her game high 24 points after the break, can’t really say enough nice things about that 20 minutes of Allen’s day.
Literally did not matter. Marquette’s lead never slipped below that 16 point halftime mark for the entire third quarter and the closest that DePaul got after halftime was when Allen scored her (and DePaul’s) final points of the game with 2:46 left to go. That cut the margin to 14, 73-59. The damage had already been done in the first half, and the Golden Eagles were content to just trade buckets for 20 minutes, because why not?
Marquette shot 31-for-54 inside the arc in this game, and when you can shoot 57% on twos, why even bother shooting threes? Skylar Forbes led MU here with 18 points, and she added six rebounds to her day. Halle Vice had a double-double on 17 points and 11 rebounds, and her five assists were pretty neat, too. Lee Volker added 17/5/2, while Jaidynn Mason chipped in a 16/4/6 with two steals. Half of Mason’s points came in the first quarter, and y’know, there’s an argument to be made that MU’s hot start is what dictated the rest of the game.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and FloSports?
Up Next: It’s a good thing that Marquette got Big East play started with a win here. They will open up 2025 with a New Year’s Day home game against #7 Connecticut, with tipoff at the sold out McGuire Center set for 1pm Central. The Huskies crushed Providence 67-41 on Sunday to move to 11-2 overall and 2-0 in Big East contests.