DePaul rallies, but it's too late against Marquette, 80-69
MILWAUKEE - Nothing has come easy for DePaul lately, but the Blue Demons suspected Wednesday night's game against Marquette was going to provide an even higher degree of difficulty.
"We knew we were going to get their best punch," senior guard Will Walker said.
When the two rivals last met, at the Allstate Arena on Jan. 20, Mike Stovall's 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left lifted the Blue Demons to a 51-50 victory, snapping DePaul's 24-game, regular-season Big East losing streak in the process.
Before heading up to Marquette for the rematch, the Demons appeared to build some added momentum Saturday by taking No. 4 Syracuse to the wire.
DePaul did put together a quality stretch against the Golden Eagles, but it came too late to prevent an 80-69 loss at the Bradley Center.
"Tough loss," interim coach Tracy Webster said. "It was tough, but in the second half we kept fighting. We're going to talk about it and hopefully that's what we'll see. If we put 40 minutes together, we'll be all right."
Actually, the Blue Demons (8-14, 1-9) only put about 12 good minutes together, and they came after Marquette (14-8, 5-5) went ahead by 26 in the second half.
From there, DePaul started pressing, and the aggressive play prevented the game from being a complete blowout.
"I'm sure they had some animosity from losing at our place," Demons center Mac Koshwal said. "I knew it wasn't going to be an easy game. But I watched Marquette-DePaul games growing up and they always play hard no matter what."
Walker, DePaul's leading scorer, had a difficult time shaking the tight defense of Eagles counterpart David Cubillan and scored only 2 points in the first half before finishing with 13.
"He was playing physical and making it hard for me to make catches," Walker said of Cubillan. "That wore me down and then I had tough looks."
Still easing his way back in after missing four games with a right-foot injury, Koshwal finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Like Walker, Koshwal didn't start to click until the game was out of hand.
"I didn't get going that well, and they feed off of me," Koshwal said. "At the end of the game I didn't worry at all about the foot and just got going, started playing. It worked out well."
For the most part, DePaul held its own with Marquette on the floor. But the Eagles went 36-for-44 from the free-throw line, while the Blue Demons were 19-for-29.
"They did a good job of knocking down their free throws," Koshwal said. "That sealed the deal."