This time it would not cower at the start. That is what DePaul did when it played at Marquette 18 days ago.
This time it would not fall behind early, never threaten and stagger in as a 19-point loser. That too is what it did on its visit to Milwaukee.
In their Wednesday night rematch at the Allstate Arena, the Blue Demons stood up to the Golden Eagles’ aggressiveness and constantly retaliated. That is why they trailed by only a point at halftime and why they were still down only three with 30 minutes gone before an evenly divided crowd of 11,154.
But basketball, as coaches constantly remind, is a 40-minute affair, and how to play every one of them is a lesson DePaul is learning. No. 11 Marquette (18-3, 9-1 Conference USA), in stark contrast, is well versed in this hard truth, and that is what made the difference as it escaped with a 73-60 win over the Blue Demons (12-8, 4-5).
“It went possession for possession for approximately 30 minutes,” DePaul coach Dave Leitao said. “Then our inability on the backboard created more possessions [for Marquette] than it should have had, and our inability to play offense created turnovers or missed shots. We were not aggressive enough to knock down shots for 40 minutes.”
“They’re a good defensive team, but a lot of it was us being lackadaisical on offense,” echoed forward Sam Hoskin, who led the Blue Demons with 16 points. “In the second half we didn’t come off as aggressive on offense … and when you don’t score, you put too much pressure on your defense.”
DePaul’s defense was good enough to control Marquette star Dwyane Wade, who scored seven of his 17 points in this game’s final 96 seconds. But it too often lost sight of his 6-foot-10-inch teammate, Steve Novak, who came off the bench to bury four consecutive threes in the second half and wound up with 17 points.
His last three-pointer, at 9:48, pushed Marquette’s lead to six. Then, after a charge by DePaul’s Quemont Greer, Golden Eagles forward Robert Jackson collected an offensive rebound, put it home while being fouled and converted a three-point play.
“He gave us an unbelievable spark,” Wade said of Novak. “We needed it somewhere from someone.”
“We knew he was a good shooter, but not as good as he was today,” Hoskin said. “Still, when someone steps up and throws a punch, you have to throw punches of your own.”
“Both teams have guys like that [coming off the bench],” Leitao said. “Theirs stepped up. Ours didn’t.”
Hoskin, Andre Brown (13 points) and Greer (10) stepped up for the Blue Demons, together shooting 50 percent and totaling 39 points. But their teammates scored only 21 while going an abysmal 6-of-29 from the field (20.7 percent) and could never answer Novak’s spark.
Novak gave the Golden Eagles a lead they could nurse, which they did knowing that No. 2 Louisville had lost at St. Louis. The win tied Marquette with the Cardinals atop Conference USA heading into Saturday’s showdown in Milwaukee.
“When we heard that, we said we had to turn it up,” Wade said.
The Eagles did just that.
