Marquette vs. DePaul final score: Hot shooting leads Golden Eagles past Blue Demons

The Marquette Golden Eagles needed a pick-me-up after two head-scratching losses to Providence and St. John’s. They got it on Saturday afternoon at Allstate Arena with a 92-79 victory over the DePaul Blue Demons.

Bench scoring played a huge part in Marquette’s win. Both coaches went four players deep, but the Golden Eagles bench outscored DePaul’s 41-7. Andrew Rowsey led Marquette’s second unit with a game-high 22 points. Katin Reinhardt added 11.

But the usual suspects also played their parts. Haanif Cheatham led the starters with 15 points. He also added 8 rebounds and 4 assists to his ledger. Markus Howard had 13 points.

Luke Fischer put together another strong effort in the middle. He finished the afternoon with 13 points, 8 rebounds, and a career-high 7 blocks. This was a good bounce-back game after only scoring 8 points in the loss to St. John’s.

Marquette shot the lights out. The Golden Eagles went 57.7% from the field and 63.6% from beyond the arc. The three-point barrage was led by the trio of Rowsey (5-6 from outside), Reinhardt (3-4), and Howard (3-5).

It also helped that Marquette was 2-to-1 in assist-to-turnover ratio. The Golden Eagles had 22 assists on 30 field made goals and 11 turnovers.

DePaul put up a hard-fought effort, which has become a recurring theme this season. The Blue Demons were ahead 14-7 at the Under-16 timeout in the 1st half. But they followed that by conceding a 18-0 run. The Golden Eagles led 44-36 at the half.

DePaul started the 2nd half fighting as well. They got the deficit down to 55-51 with 15:40 left in the 2nd half. But Marquette was able to pull away, keeping the Blue Demons at arm’s length until the final buzzer.

All five Blue Demon starters finished in double-figures. Tre’Darius McCallum led the way with 21 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

Billy Garrett, Jr. went 1-5 from the field in the 1st half. But he recovered by going 4-6 in the 2nd half. He finished with 17 points and 5 assists.

Joe Hanel and Brandon Cyrus had 12 points each. Eli Cain finished a rough day with 10 points on 4-14 shooting.

But the lack of bench presence was too much to overcome. Levi Cook, Chris Harrison-Docks, and Devin Gage had 2 points each on a combined 2-7 from the field. Al Eichelberger added a single made free throw.

DePaul falls to 8-15 overall, 1-9 in the Big East. They have lost 11 of their last 12 games. Their next challenge will be against Xavier on Wednesday in Cincinnati.

Marquette moves to 15-8 overall, 6-5 in-conference. The Golden Eagles will return home to face Butler on Tuesday.