TITLE: Blue Demons late comeback falls short

Continued from page 16 today would clinch the outright regular season title for the Golden Eagles.

But due to not securing the outright winner of the title Saturday, there were no postgame celebrations other than high-fiving fans from Marquette.

Smart said it was a decision made earlier in the week from a conversation he had with Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro.

“They said, ‘Let’s try to win more,’” Smart said. “It’s a good time to be greedy in a good way. We don’t just want to share. We want to win outright so that’s the way our guys felt.”

Statistical leaders

Jones led the Golden Eagles on the night with 22 points. He went 7 -for-12 from the field, setting a new career-high with seven 3-pointers.

Kolek added 22 points himself on 5-for-9 shooting and an effi- cient 11-for-12 from the charity stripe. Additionally, he finished with 14 assists and two steals.

Umoja Gibson did some damage for the Blue Demons, finishing with a team-high 20 points. DePaul shot 51.7% as a team on the night.

Finding a groove early Jones set the tone from the opening jump for Marquette as he connected on three of his first four attempts from beyond the arc to give the Golden Eagles an early 11-6 advantage.

Ighodaro went to the bench early in the first half as he picked up two personal fouls. With Ighodaro’s absence on the floor, it opened up the opportunity for the Blue Demons to stay within reach of the Golden Eagles.

The final seven minutes of the half showed why Marquette once held the No. 1 ranked offense on KenPom.com.

Ighodaro sparked a 9-1 Golden

Eagle run with three-straight layups forcing the Blue Demons to burn a timeout trailing 30-17.

Marquette also picked up its defensive presence down the stretch. Sophomore guard Stevie Mitchell racked up two steals before coming up with a block on the other end when DePaul’s Eral Penn went up for a dunk.

Jones would hit two more triples before the half ended. He tied his career-high of five 3-pointers when Marquette went up 43-27.

Then in the winding seconds of the half, Jones hit his third halftime buzzer-beater of the season to give the Golden Eagles a 21-point halftime advantage.

Kolek comes up short again Earlier this season, Kolek came close to Tony Miller’s singlegame assist record with 15 assists against Georgetown Jan. 7. Saturday, Kolek looked to be on pace to break it as he had 11 assists in the first half.

“Tyler passes the ball at a high level all the time and they’re (assists) dependent on someone making a shot,” Smart said. “You have No. 1 (Kam Jones) bombing them in at high level, even that last play from almost half court, so that helps your assist numbers. But you got to make a good pass as well.”

But with the Golden Eagles having a sluggish second half offensive performance, he came three assists short of tying Miller’s record of 17.

Holding onto win

In the first half, it was all Marquette, the second half not so much.

DePaul woke up in the final 20 minutes as it outscored Marquette 41-29 in begin the half. But the Blue Demons still trailed by nine with 3:44 to play.

Smart said his team didn’t come out with the same edge and urgency as they showed in the first half.

“Mindset comes first and what comes after the mindset is either the appropriate violence, multiple efforts, energy or below the line,” Smart said. “Thought for most of the second half on defense, we were below the line in those areas.”

Javon Johnson brought DePaul within six with 2:20 to go but it wasn’t enough to mount the comeback. Kolek scored 15, nine of which came off free throws, of Marquette’s final 16 points to hold onto the win.