Give all the credit to Marquette.
That’s what De Paul coach Joey Meyer said Wednesday night after Damon Key, Jim McIlvaine and the rest of the Warriors snapped the Blue Demons’ winning streak at nine games with a 71-52 whipping at the Horizon.
Give credit to Marquette.
Tom Kleinschmidt and Brandon Cole, the only Demons to score more than seven points, echoed their coach’s words after Marquette improved its record to 9-4 overall and 2-0 in the Great Midwest Conference and dropped De Paul to 10-2, 2-1.
Marquette deserved every bit of the credit that De Paul directed its way.
The Blue Demons, outscored 14-0 during a 7-minute dry run in the first half, shot just .269 in the first 20 minutes. For the night, they shot .345 on 19 of 55 from the floor and a sickly .100 on 2 of 20 from behind the three-point arc.
Part of De Paul’s horrid shooting was poor execution. Part was due to 7-foot-1-inch, long-armed McIlvaine, lurking in the lane in his intimidating one-man zone. Part was due to defenders such as Roney Eford and Robb Logterman, sticking to Kleinschmidt and Cole and limiting them to 5-for-15 and 5-for-13 shooting.
“We decided to boycott early,” cracked Meyer, alluding to talk of weekend walkouts to protest the NCAA decision not to restore a 14th scholarship per school.
“We did not perform or execute,” Meyer said. “But give all the credit to Marquette. They picked us apart. We panicked a little.”
De Paul’s “panic,” Meyer explained, came when, for the first time this season, the Demons could not answer an opponent’s surge with a run of their own.
“We did not react well when our shots did not go down in the first half,” Meyer said.
“We didn’t move the ball or reverse it or set screens,” Cole said. “We had a bad game, but Marquette played good defense.”
Marquette took a 32-17 halftime lead, thanks to a 14-0 run during an 8-minute stretch when freshman Anthony Pieper came on and hit three baskets from three-point range.
“Pieper was shooting about 10 percent (actually 26) on threes until tonight,” Meyer said. “No, we know he can shoot. We recruited him.”
At the very start of the second half, Cole nailed De Paul’s first three-pointer of the night and immediately added a driving layup. Logterman at once responded with a three-pointer. Kleinschmidt then cut the lead to eight points, 36-38, by driving, drawing McIlvaine’s third foul, sinking the basket and the foul shot.
The Horizon crowd of 10,307 was rocking at that point. But 6-8, 250-pound Key, who matched Kleinschmidt’s game-high 16 points, muscled home five points in a row, and after that, Marquette was never threatened.
“Logterman’s three-point shot stopped De Paul’s momentum,” Marquette coach Kevin O’Neill said. “We wanted to stop De Paul’s transition baskets and to rebound with them. We did both.”
Getting eight rebounds from McIlvaine and seven each from Key and Amal McCaskill, Marquette edged De Paul 36-33 off the glass. Kleinschmidt’s eight rebounds topped his team.
Meyer rotated five big men in the 6-7 to 6-9 range inside against Key and McIlvaine. Only 6-9 Michael Ravizee with seven points and six rebounds in his 19 minutes was effective.
“We didn’t move inside,” Meyer said. “I almost wanted to go out on the floor and pull the arms of our post players to make them move. They almost froze out there.”
