As Marquette women’s basketball coach Carolyn Kieger walked down the tunnel to where she would hold her post-game press conference, she let out an excited yelp and exclaimed, “That was fun,” referencing her team’s 96-81 victory over DePaul.
The win completed the season sweep over DePaul, marking the first time since the 2003-’04 season that Marquette has beat DePaul twice in one year. In addition, Marquette remained unbeaten against top-25 teams this season, as the Blue Demons entered Sunday’s game ranked No. 17/15.
“It’s just confidence,” Marquette guard Danielle King said. “We know that we can go out there and play with anybody if we play our game and we just keep that mentality, whoever steps on the floor. Just keep our confidence up.”
When Marquette last played DePaul in January, King led the Golden Eagles with a career-high 27 points. Sunday, King was once again dominant, setting a new career high of 28 points while also recording nine assists and five rebounds.
“It was just the tempo. Going up and down, able to get quick shots,” King said. “My teammates see me running the floor well and just using my speed wisely. I don’t think it is anything personal. It’s just smart play.”
Marquette couldn’t have asked for a better start to the game. With King pushing the ball up the court, almost every shot the Golden Eagles put up went in as they shot a whopping 84 percent in the first quarter. At one point Natisha Hiedeman took a three from six inches behind the 3-point line. She appeared to get fouled, but despite the no-call, the shot still found its way to the basket. The Golden Eagles ended the first quarter up 38-24.
“Thirty-eight points in a quarter? I just had to shake my head,” Kieger said. “They were amazing, they were sharing the ball. Dani King, I mean, it started with her. I looked at the stats at halftime, she had 15 and nine and I was like, ‘Wow.’ So she has been playing phenomenally. She is really becoming that general. I think the best thing about her is that she’s holding her teammates accountable and that is giving her confidence and you can just see it flowing out of her right now.”
Part of Marquette’s success in setting the tempo came from rebounding. The Golden Eagles snagged seven defensive rebounds, while DePaul managed to only grab two.
The Golden Eagle offense continued to have success in the second quarter, but it was their defense that was on full display. Playing man-to-man defense, Marquette held DePaul, who has one of the best offenses in the country, to only 23 percent shooting from the field in the quarter.
“We were just talking through everyone on personnel,” Kieger said. “I think that is the best I have seen them play in terms of knowing where their shooters are and knowing where their personnel is and jamming the right shoulder and moving to the right direction where we are supposed to be. So, they played the scout well, obviously we always can fix more, but I’m so happy right now. We’ll just enjoy this.”
Despite being down 56-38, DePaul came out of halftime on fire. Brooke Schulte, who finished the game with 26 points, hit three of her team’s four shots to start the second half. The Blue Demons cut the lead to as little as 10 multiple times in the quarter, but Marquette did just enough to hold them off from cutting their deficit to single digits. Marquette built its lead back up to 75-61 to end the third quarter.
DePaul once again threatened Marquette towards the end of the fourth quarter by making the score 85-75 with 2:57 left to go. The Golden Eagles retained the double-digit lead, but DePaul stayed at their heels. With 1:20 left to play, Hiedeman dashed any hope of DePaul comeback by sinking a three to make the score 93-80.
Marquette is back in action Friday when they welcome Georgetown to the Al McGuire Center.
