ROSEMONT, Ill. — The first eight minutes of the men's basketball team's 76-61 win over DePaul Tuesday went exactly according to plan.

Marquette, riding hot-shooting Jerel McNeal, jumped out to an 11-4 lead. The Golden Eagles increased the advantage to 18-5, then 27-9 with 11:52 still left on the clock. But that's when things went wrong.

The lowly Blue Demons flipped a switch they haven't found often this season, and closed the gap to 33-20. Then 37-31. When the horn sounded on the first half, DePaul had climbed back to within five points (42-37) after 12 minutes of furious, back-and-forth action.

"I thought we were really good the first eight minutes of the first half," coach Buzz Williams said. "I thought the next 12 minutes DePaul was perfect, and we were as bad as you could possibly be on both ends of the floor."

In those 12 minutes, the Golden Eagles were outscored 28-15 and allowed DePaul to shoot 50 percent (12-of-24) from the field. Blue Demons guard Will Walker had 16 points during that span, and the Golden Eagles turned the ball over five times.

Walker, who finished the game with 30 points on 10-of-21 shooting, said he was just happy to take advantage of the opportunity.

"Marquette is usually a transition team, so I think the coach was looking forward to that type of game," Walker said. "When things weren't working out, I think he knew he had a veteran team and just expected them to get out of that situation fast."

But the Golden Eagles couldn't. Williams just stood idly by, hording his timeouts and choosing to let his team find its own way out of the doldrums.

"They knew the deal, they knew what I would've said," Williams said. "They need to figure out how to get themselves out of (trouble).

"It just kind of dissipated on us…I've never used more than one timeout in the first half, and that's the one that you have to use or you (will) lose."

Williams almost didn't have that luxury as DePaul (8-15, 0-10 Big East) rebounded from an ugly opening to show a surprising amount of fight. The Blue Demons held a 16-4 advantage on the offensive boards, and a 35-29 advantage in rebounding on the night. That allowed DePaul to outscore Marquette 13-3 on second-chance points.

"I don't know if (the first half stretch) was the best we've played…but it really shows to the kids' character," DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright said. "People in our building are making sure that they don't accept moral victories.

"You would like to bottle that and say 'Well this is what it takes to win, and this is what it takes to play well'."

But DePaul couldn't sustain that idea, allowing Marquette to shoot 57.1 percent for the game (50 percent in the second half) and rack up a 16-0 advantage on fast-break points. After the game, Williams said he didn't rattle any cages at halftime either, again choosing a hands-off approach.

It seemed to work as senior guard Dominic James scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half, Wesley Matthews scored 20 points and McNeal turned in an amazing all-around performance with 26 points, six assists, four rebounds, five steals and four blocks.

"I didn't say anything at halftime, no profanity at halftime, I'm trying to get better about that," Williams said. "They need to learn, and I think they did learn."

It was a strategy not lost on James, who said the veteran Marquette squad appreciated the trust of its coach.

"He doesn't call timeout in the first half, he usually allows our maturity to take over and let us coach," James said. "He would've just told us we were messing around."