Following a blowout loss at the hands of top-ranked Connecticut, No. 7 Marquette welcomes in a team that is winless in Big East play in DePaul on Wednesday night in Milwaukee.
Built up as a heavyweight battle between No. 1 UConn and then-No. 4 Marquette on Saturday, the Huskies dominated after an even first 10 minutes, winning 81-53.
Kam Jones led Marquette with 15 points with Oso Ighodaro trailing closely behind with 14. The Golden Eagles (19-6, 10-4 Big East) shot 37 percent from the floor and just 22 percent from beyond the arc.
"Once the offensive rebounding edge flipped, that was a big, big difference in the game," said Marquette coach Shaka Smart, whose team had 10 offensive rebounds to the Huskies' 18. "They were doing a lot of the things we try to do on the defensive end. They were the more violent team."
DePaul (3-22, 0-14) also last played Saturday, losing at Providence 81-70 despite scoring the final 12 points of the game.
Jaden Henley and Elijah Fisher each had 15 points to lead DePaul, who lost their 26th consecutive regular-season Big East game (the Blue Demons did beat Seton Hall in the first round of the Big East tournament last season).
Chico Carter leads DePaul in scoring at 11.6 points per game. He also leads with 3.6 assists while Da'Sean Nelson leads with four rebounds per contest.
Tyler Kolek leads Marquette with 15.7 points and 7.2 assists per game. Ighodaro leads down low, averaging 7.3 boards and 1.2 blocks while Stevie Mitchell is stealing the ball twice per game.
On the injury front, Marquette is clear outside of Sean Jones, who is out for the season following surgery to repair a torn ACL. DePaul's K.T. Raimey is questionable for Wednesday with a concussion while Caleb Murphy is also out for the season with a wrist injury.
This will be the second and final matchup between these nearby rivals, with Marquette winning 86-73 in Chicago on Jan. 24.
Kolek led Marquette with 22 points and seven assists while David Joplin added 21 points and Ighodaro scored 19 with 12 rebounds.
Defensively, however, it wasn't the cleanest game for the Golden Eagles. The 73 points and 47.3 field-goal percentage were the Blue Demons' best marks against a Big East foe this season, while their 11 made 3-pointers were a season high.
The Golden Eagles have taken three in a row in the series and are 13-5 against the Blue Demons dating back to the start of the 2015-16 season.
On the stat sheet, this would certainly be a monumental upset for DePaul. The Blue Demons rank last in the Big East in both scoring offense (64.3 points per game) and scoring defense (80.5 points per game allowed). Marquette ranks fourth in both of those categories (77.7 points for; 68.7 points against) while ranking first in turnover margin and steals.
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