The Golden Eagles just completely forgot how to basketball in the second half against the Blue Demons.
I’m opening up this recap with 8:31 left in the second half, right after a dunk by DePaul’s Nick Ongenda that left Marquette trailing 72-55 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The Golden Eagles led 42-35 with 18:36 left in the game off a dunk by Kur Kuath.
Yes, that’s a 37-13 run by DePaul.
It was arguably worse than that, specifically the 18-2 run in the middle of that.
I’m presuming that nothing else that happens in this game is going to matter all that much, that’s why I’m writing this recap now. It was a fun-ish first half of basketball, a mostly perfectly fine basketball game that left the Golden Eagles up 37-33 at intermission. Sure, things to work on, things to clean up, especially in the turnover department, but it was fine.
First few minutes of the second half? Good, obviously, as Marquette nudged that lead out to seven points. The wheels just completely fell off at that point. MU just could not do a thing right for a good long stretch, and meanwhile, the Blue Demons were playing like a team possessed, hitting shot after shot after shot after shot. They made plays on defense too, disrupting the Marquette offense with blocks and steals. You can almost kind of deal with falling behind because your shots are falling. But that’s not what this was, this was just DePaul running wild like Hulk Hogan in 1985 at Madison Square Garden.
It’s 76-64 DePaul with 5:24 to play. 9-4 edge for the Golden Eagles while I’ve been typing. That’s not going to be enough to make a difference here.
I don’t have anything to say about what’s going on here. Stevie Mitchell just hit a three, Justin Lewis dunked. It’s a 13 point game with 90 seconds left.
Final margin: DePaul 91, Marquette 80. It sucked.
Up Next: The Golden Eagles get one final chance to end the regular season on something resembling a high note when they host St. John’s for Senior Night on Saturday. Tip-off against the Red Storm on FS1 is set for 8pm Central.