The Marquette Golden Eagles lost a 17-point lead, but held on to beat the DePaul Blue Demons 60-53 at the Al McGuire Center. Tatiyiana McMorris led Marquette with 16 points while fellow senior Paige Fiedorowicz added 14 of her own on Marquette’s Senior Night.

The Golden Eagles pressured DePaul on the perimeter in the first half, holding the Blue Demons to just 28 percent shooting. DePaul head coach Doug Bruno praised Marquette for its effort on defense.

“When you don’t shoot well there’s a reason, and that’s the other team,” Bruno said. “And Marquette did a great job. Their seniors and coaching staff did a great job tonight, and they were really ready to play.”

McMorris was one of those reasons on both ends of the court, scoring 13 points in the opening half on 5-of-7 shooting.

“When (defenders) started collapsing, that’s when a lot of threes opened up for me,” McMorris said. “My teammates were looking for me, and when I started hitting shots, I felt really comfortable, so that was a big key to the game.”

Marquette took a 34-25 halftime lead thanks in part to McMorris, and as a team Marquette shot 56 percent from the field. The halftime margin could have been expanded had the Golden Eagles not turned the ball over 12 times. Four of those giveaways came from Robinson, who said the turnovers were careless.

“They were just unforced turnovers,” Robinson said. “They were just miscommunications between whoever I was throwing to and where they were going to.”

Marquette kept the momentum to open the second half, scoring 10 of the first 12 points to take a 17-point lead at 44-27 with 16:18 to go. But DePaul’s Keisha Hampton, who leads the team with 15.7 points per game, reeled off eight straight points that began a 19-4 run for the Blue Demons, which cut the lead to two. Minutes later, Deirdre Naughton hit a 3-pointer to tie the score at 49 with 6:24 to go.

From there it was all Marquette. The Golden Eagles scored nine of the game’s last 11 points, sealing the win with free throws in the closing minutes. Fittingly on Senior Night, the team’s final 11 points came from seniors, including a driving layup from Robinson as the shot clock expired to give Marquette a 51-49 lead, a lead they would not give up the rest of the game.

After the game the team gathered at midcourt and watched a special video commemorating the seniors before being individually honored.