Prior to this afternoon's game, the Blue Demons boasted the top ranked scoring offense in the Big East putting up 83.,”The Marquette Golden Eagles women's basketball team defeated the No. 23/22 ranked DePaul Blue Demons 65-56 at the Al McGuire Center. The real story was not the upset itself, but rather how the Golden Eagles managed it.

Prior to this afternoon's game, the Blue Demons boasted the top ranked scoring offense in the Big East putting up 83.8 points per game through 16 games. On the other side of the ball the Blue Demons sat dead last in the conference letting in 67.9 points per contest.

DePaul started off strong opening the game with a 13-4 lead. The Blue Demons' junior forward Natasha Williams looked like too much to handle out of the gate with six of DePaul's first eight points.

With 14:20 left in the first half Marquette began an 11-2 capped of by a 3-pointer by freshman guard Tatiyiana McMorris to make it 15-15.

The two teams passed the lead back and forth several times, finally ending the half with Marquette on top 29-25.

After a tough first half in which the Golden Eagles missed plenty of open shots—bigs Svetlana Kovalenko and Kelly Lam combined to go 1-9 from the field—it was in fact the team's defense that made the difference.

DePaul was held to just 37.5 percent shooting and gave up 12 turnovers. While her team only led by four, head coach Terri Mitchell had to be feeling good about holding the conference's top offense to just 25 first half points.

"DePaul can score 100 if you let them," Mitchell said. "They are that conditioned to get up and down the court and they have excellent shooters. I was really happy we buckled down."

In the second half the Blue Demons continued to be victimized by a suffocating Golden Eagles defense. DePaul's leading scorer, senior guard Allie Quigley, struggled to hit much of anything which allowed Marquette to focus on keeping the ball out of Williams's hands.

After totaling eight points and five rebounds in the first period, Williams finished with only 12 points and nine rebounds.

"We were running stuff to try to get the ball back inside," Blue Demon's head coach Doug Bruno said. "The inside out aspect of our game was working. We were having our way inside. Then obviously Marquette was sending a second player to Natasha inside so we had to do some other things."

DePaul held close until there was about 15:00 left in the game when freshman forward Paige Fiedorowicz stole the ball and then converted on the other end for an easy layup.

This sparked an 8-0 Marquette run putting the home team up 46-36. DePaul would never get closer than within six for the remainder of the game.

Marquette junior guard Krystal Ellis struggled with her shot but still put together 16 points in only 23 minutes. In fact, no one on the Golden Eagles topped 26 minutes.

Freshman guard Angel Robinson chipped in 13 points, and sophomore guard Janelle Harris added nine.

While the final score was something of a surprise, Marquette is just happy it was able to knock off a ranked opponent. DePaul was the team's third such opponent in as many games.

"The last two games have been close and we didn't capture it at the end," Ellis said. "This game we needed to capture it at the end against a ranked team."

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