The world’s largest hospitality suite reopened Wednesday night. Scores of yellow-clad Marquette fans infiltrated Allstate Arena, rendering moot whatever humble advantage the pint-sized DePaul crowd could offer.
So the predicament was an achingly familiar one. Either the Blue Demons finally would get in gear, or they could continue to make their home floor a stuck-in-neutral court in more ways than one.
Stunning some in the crowd and sending the rest into a frenzy, the Demons’ nightmare ended Wednesday. All across Big East country, 24 times in a row, they met defeat. But DePaul reintroduced itself to victory with a stunning 51-50 victory over Marquette, its first conference triumph since March 6, 2008.
The Demons’ Mike Stovall hit two long jumpers in the final 10 seconds, the second the game-winner with 0.7 seconds left in the game. Once Marquette’s final possession faltered, it set off a wild celebration at half-court and offered some relief nearly two years in the making.
For the second straight home game under interim coach Tracy Webster, the Demons nonetheless afforded themselves a legitimate chance to win, recovering from an early 12-point deficit to trail by just single digits at the half.
But there was no immediate second-half implosion as there was against Providence. In fact a Jeremiah Kelly 3-pointer brought the Demons to a mere 37-35 deficit with 121/2 minutes to go, enough to incite anxiety in the building, no matter what your allegiance.
After a few back-and-forth possessions, two Stovall free throws after a steal again cut DePaul’s deficit to 46-44 with less than five minutes to go. The Demons were down four coming out of a timeout with 1 minute, 46 seconds to play, and Kelly missed a critical 3-pointer from the wing.
But Marquette’s Jimmy Butler missed a short jumper on the other end, resuscitating hope for a moment. But Eagles pressure frazzled the Demons, which left Will Walker (game-high 17 points) to hoist a 25-foot 3-pointer with the shot clock expiring that was well off.
Again, Marquette fell short of a close-out. Lazar Hayward missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and then Stovall drained a long 3-pointer with 9.7 seconds left to cut the deficit to 50-49. Marquette’s David Cubillan then again missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 8.4 seconds left, setting up Stovall’s heroics from the right wing.
DePaul made 7 of their last 11 shots from the floor to end the half and cut their intermission deficit to six. A Marquette three-pointer at the buzzer was waved off, leaving one to wonder if things at last were tilting the Demons’ way.
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bchamilton@tribune.com
