Shoot your shot. Sometimes a euphemism. Sometimes what you need to tell your basketball team. Something that Andrew Rowsey and company did very well for the Marquette Golden Eagles in their victory over DePaul Saturday .

On the back of Rowsey’s 24 points (9-of-10 from the field, 6-of-7 from 3) and Katin Reinhardt’s born-again offensive game (19 points on 7-of-10 from the field), the Golden Eagles blew by the Blue Demons of DePaul, 83-58.

The game started close, with both teams trading the lead back and forth and playing good defense, keeping the score to 22-22 with 8:46 left in the game.

And then the floodgates opened. Rowsey made a three and all of a sudden Marquette, who had been 3 of 10 from three, went on a tear of 9 straight made threes, including six STRAIGHT possessions ending in threes, to end the half up 52-31, scoring their most points ever in the first half of a regular season Big East game. The defense of the Golden Eagles held firm as well, including a stretch of 8:42 where the Blue Demon offense did not manage to make a basket. The Golden Eagles managed to force six turnovers and hold the Blue Demons to 10-24 from the floor (the Blue Demons were 5-9 from three, including some tough late-in-the-shot-clock threes in the eyes of Marquette defenders).

The second half saw the Golden Eagles cool off, going only 1-7 from three, and having more turnovers on their first five possessions (4), than in the first half entirely (3). However, the point differential was just too much for DePaul, who continued to have an off day on offense, shooting just 38% from the floor. DePaul’s leading scorer, Eli Cain, especially struggled, going 1-8 from the floor for seven points. Billy Garret lead the Blue Demons with 12 points on 3-10 from the floor, and Darrick Wood chipped in 11 points of 4-6 shooting.

Marquette gets to go on the road to face Butler at noon EST as part of the Martin Luther King Day Big East Marathon, while DePaul plays in the same marathon against St. John’s in New York City at 4:30 EST.

Musings

• Katin Reinhardt, who had been a highly touted scorer, had been struggling (for the most part) this year, including some possessions where he seemed to forget about teammates. Today, not only did he have 4 assists, but he moved the ball very well and showed a more refined offensive game, using the pump fake with particular effectiveness to get open jumpers. If he continues to do this he will continue to be a big scoring threat off the bench.
• Marquette out-rebounded DePaul 31-22. It does help when you shoot so well, but there were huge questions about this team’s rebounding prowess. While this isn’t exactly a huge sample size and there have been some big differentials not in their favor (read: 54-33 in favor of Seton Hall on Wednesday), seeing them actually win a rebounding battle has to give their fans some hope.
• Levi Cook was 3-3 from the floor and made his only free throw of the game to end with 7 points. The freshman center looked decent on defense (even though he didn’t pull down a rebound) and okay on offense. He made his 14 minutes count and I am excited to watch him develop.