Theo John recorded a double-double and Markus Howard led all scorers with 23 points as Marquette extended its winning streak to six and remained unbeaten at Fiserv Forum with a 79-69 BIG EAST win over DePaul last night.
A 20-6 run over the final six minutes of the first half helped Marquette (17-3 overall, 6-1 conference) take control of the game at halftime, 40-27. The Golden Eagles wouldn't trail again the rest of the contest, though they'd also never pull away, as their lead never grew larger than 11 in the second half.
John was a force down low for Marquette, collecting a collegiate-high 16 points to go with 10 rebounds and six blocked shots. DePaul (11-7, 3-4) repeatedly got burned over-anticipating entry passes to John, lunging for the ball and missing, leaving nothing between the burly, 6-foot-9 sophomore and two-handed dunks. Credit Howard for many of those dimes, as he had nine assists to go with 15-of-15 shooting at the free throw line, despite an uncharacteristic night beyond the three-point line, where he only took two shots and hit neither.
Reigning BIG EAST Player of the Week Sam Hauser added 19 points, while his brother, the most-recent conference Freshman of the Week Joey Hauser, contributed 14. DePaul was led by Paul Reed's 18.
Marquette is now 14-0 at its new Fiserv Forum home to start the 2018-19 campaign. It's the university's best start to a home schedule since a 16-0 run under Buzz Williams in 2012-13. The road, however, hasn't been as kind to Marquette, which is 2-2 on hostile ground. It'll try and improve on that mark Saturday when it travels to face Xavier in Cincinnati with a start time of 1 p.m. CST.
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