No. 14 Marquette put four scorers in double figures and kept DePaul at arm’s length to win a Big East matchup 86-73 on Wednesday night in Chicago.
Tyler Kolek, the reigning Big East Player of the Year, registered 22 points and seven assists, while David Joplin scored 21 points on 6-of-8 shooting from long range as the Golden Eagles (14-5, 5-3 Big East) won their third straight game. Oso Ighodaro piled up 19 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and two blocks, and Stevie Mitchell tacked on 12 points.
DePaul (3-16, 0-8), which fired coach Tony Stubblefield on Monday and installed Matt Brady on an interim basis, lost its seventh game in a row. Jalen Terry led the Blue Demons with 22 points and six rebounds. He also made 6 of 8 shots from deep. Jeremiah Oden added 19 points and Jaden Henley supplied 10.
DePaul was without the injured Chico Carter Jr. for the second straight game. He leads the team with 11.8 points per game, just ahead of Da’Sean Nelson, who added eight on Wednesday.
Marquette, which led by as many as 19 points in the first half, was ahead 48-38 at the break. The Golden Eagles again threatened to make it a rout in the second half, upping the cushion to 59-44 after back-to-back 3-pointers by reserve Ben Gold.
Ighodaro then scored all eight points during an 8-2 burst to expand the lead to 18 with 10:20 left in the game. The Blue Demons got no closer than 11 the rest of the way.
After opening the first half red hot, the Golden Eagles finished at 54.5 percent from the floor and 45.5 percent from long range for the game.
DePaul shot 47.3 percent overall and hung around by making 11 of 24 (45.8 percent) attempts from deep.
In building their first-half lead, the Golden Eagles made 16 of their first 26 shots (61.5 percent) from the floor. They made 7 of 12 treys in the first 11 1/2 minutes.
Joplin, who scored 12 points in the first half, had six during Marquette’s 20-3 burst that led to a 40-21 advantage with 6:28 left. Kolek’s 3-pointer capped the run. He scored 16 points in the half.
When the Golden Eagles cooled off near the end of the half, missing five of their last six shots, DePaul finished the period with a 12-4 run to trail by 10 at the break.
–Field Level Media
