Dominic James played fast and furious Tuesday night and DePaul could not cover Marquette’s freshman point guard any better than the Bears shadowed the Carolina Panthers’ Steve Smith on Sunday.
No surprise, the result was the same for the Blue Demons in basketball as it was for the Bears in football. DePaul played alternately humiliating and heroic halves in its first Big East matchup with Marquette at Allstate Arena, but came up short 82-79.
Despite coming back from a 24-point first-half deficit, the Blue Demons couldn’t get a shot to tie or win it.
“We just wanted to be aggressive throughout the game,” James said in describing how Marquette established the tone.
The Blue Demons looked hopeless in the first half when the Golden Eagles nailed 10 of 12 three-pointers, but they seemed to mature during halftime.
Led by junior guard Sammy Mejia (24 points) and sophomore guard Draelon Burns (22 points), who started for suspended freshman forward Wilson Chandler, DePaul turned the finish into one of the most dramatic in the 102-game rivalry.
Coach Jerry Wainwright would not say what Chandler, DePaul’s third-leading scorer and top rebounder, had done. He previously had been benched at the start of two games, but Tuesday night he wasn’t even on the Demons’ bench.
Wainwright put no timetable on a Chandler return.
Wainwright called the situation “regrettable” and said he loves Chandler like a son, but he also said “nobody’s ever bigger” than the program.
“I’m sure we’ll straighten it out,” Wainwright said.
DePaul cut the lead to 78-76 to make Marquette nervous with 21.2 seconds to go. But forward Steve Novak hit two free throws eight seconds later.
“I was still confident we were going to get the win, but it was definitely slipping away,” James said.
The first game between the teams as members of the Big East went the Golden Eagles’ way because of James’ career-high 29 points on a mix of long-range jumpers and drives, and Novak’s crushing 6 of 10 three-point accuracy that helped him to 24 points.
DePaul (8-8, 1-4) appeared doomed in the first half when Marquette (13-5, 3-2) came out shooting more than 65 percent from the field. Yet the Blue Demons, who trailed 49-30 at intermission, scored the first six points of the second half.
“In this league you are not going to come back from a 20-point deficit,” Mejia said. “You try to force teams to do what you want to do. You really can’t coach passion and energy.”
The crowd of 12,322, DePaul’s second largest of the season, roared constantly as the Blue Demons steadily eroded Marquette’s margin. The Blue Demons, so sluggish early, played gamely throughout the final 20 minutes, shooting 50 percent from the floor, outrebounding Marquette 34-31 and committing only three turnovers in the half.
It was all enough to scare the Golden Eagles.
“I said a little prayer at the end,” Novak said.
But his shooting probably helped more.
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lfreedman@tribune.com
