Resurgence, second half lift No. 22 women's basketball over Marquette 71-59

It was resurgence that pushed DePaul past Marquette Sunday afternoon 71-59.

The DePaul Women's basketball team (NR/22) were coming off a 79 -73 victory over Villanova and were looking to continue their roll Sunday afternoon against unranked Marquette (13 – 11, 4-7).

DePaul has been playing with a two player bench since mid-December and have found themselves spreading thin offensively. Recently, the Blue Demons have been able to incorporate a little extra hustle into their game plan, resulting in players playing above and beyond. As the season winds down, DePaul sees themselves as a tournament team, and credit the players for this, for they've had to pull a lot of missing weight this season.

The first half featured poor shooting from both sides as both the Blue Demons and Golden Eagles shot under 40 percent to end the first half. Junior Anna Martin led DePaul in scoring through the first half with 7, but went 2 -7 from the floor. Marquette's Arlesia Morse was the only player on the floor that demonstrated good shooting in the first half finishing with 12. This would be enough to give the Golden Eagles the lead at the half, 30 – 27.

Marquette came into this one with a short bench as well. Coach Terri Mitchell was left with 8 players Sunday after losing Courtney Thomas, Lauren Tibbs and Apiew Ojulu to injury. At the end of the first half the team would find themselves with another setback, losing Chelsea Butler to an ankle injury.

Brittany Hynko finished the first half with only four points after going 2- 11, but she turned it around in the second. Hyrnko would tack on an extra 12 points in the half.

Marquette didn't have the stamina to keep up with the Blue Demons in the second half. The Golden Eagles game plan in the first half was to dominate in the inside and pound the paint, but in the second there wasn't enough gas in the tank. The Blue Demons out rebounded the Golden Eagles by a margin of 10, 38 – 28, and had 2 players with 10 boards a piece. DePaul would take advantage of every Marquette miss and beat them on the fast break. This was the key role for forward Jasmine Penny who would find herself slashing to the basket on the break. Penny finished with 14 points.

Morse, who led Marquette in scoring through the first half would only add 3 more points in the game, finishing with 15.

Forward Katherine Plouffe was the only dominate player for Marquette in the second half finishing with 22 points and 7 rebounds. Plouffe worked Katherine Harry in the post adding 16 points in the half. Harry would finish with 6 points and 10 rebounds.

DePaul would take a lot of outside shots in the second half, but would connect on only 32 percent of them. Deanna Ortiz shot 4 – 10 from beyond the arc and finished with 12 for the game.

Martin connected on 3 -5 and finish the game with 19 points.

The Blue Demons almost doubled their scoring in the second half, and cruised to a resurging 71 – 59 victory.

Coach Doug Bruno wasn't pleased with the way his "Magnificent 7" shot, but was still happy to take the win.

"I did not feel we came out ready to play. Marquette did a great job of giving us their best shot" said Bruno. "They pounded it into the post, we got in foul trouble early, but after halftime we came out with a lot of energy and that is really what we needed."

This game was the 56th time these two teams have played since 1978. DePaul leads the series 35 – 21.

DePaul's next game is on the road at West Virginia on February 18th. The Demons next home game is February 21st at 8:00 against Syracuse.