It’s survival in the city
Villanova up next for Eagles
NEW YORK - It wasn’t pretty, but Marquette lived to play another day with a 72-69 victory over DePaul in the first round of the Big East tournament on Wednesday.
The Golden Eagles will take on second-seeded Villanova at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Senior guard Andrew Rowsey led MU with 25 points and sophomore wing Sam Hauser added 16.
Sophomore guard Sacar Anim chipped in 14 points. He had scored one point over MU’s last two games.
The Golden Eagles overcame serious foul trouble. They committed 25 fouls to DePaul’s 16 and the Blue Demons were 17 of 26 on free throws.
The teams traded runs in the first half.
The Golden Eagles made their first three baskets but then went cold as the Blue Demons scored eight straight to take a 10-7 lead. MU answered with an 18-2 blitz. Rowsey scored 11 of those
points, including three straight threepointers, in a 2 minute 20 second span.
The Golden Eagles’ largest lead in the first half came at 29:15 with 5:41 remaining.
The Blue Demons cut that deficit to eight points but didn’t make a field goal in the final 3:01 of the half.
Rowsey sank a running, one-handed jumper at the buzzer to give MU a 39-27 lead at the break.
The Golden Eagles were saddled by foul trouble in the first half with Hauser, Markus Howard and Theo John each picking up two while Elliott was whistled for three.
Rowsey missed his first four shots of the second half before sinking a jumper to give MU a 46-35 lead with 15:28 left.
DePaul kept chipping away at the lead and got the deficit to 52-46 on two free throws by Marin Maric at the 12:47 mark.
Maric hit a layup with 10:33 remaining and MU coach Steve Wojciechowski called timeout.
DePaul’s Eli Cain had a three-point deficit to cut MU’s lead to one but Anim answered with a jumper and a Hauser with a three-pointer to give MU some breathing room.
But the Blue Demons kept hanging around and tied the game at 61-61 on Strus’ dunk with 5:45 left.
MU, as it has in its last two games, turned to Rowsey in crucial moments. He gave MU the lead back with a threepointer and a mid-range jumper.
The Golden Eagles managed to hang on to the lead the rest of the way.
They were saved by Strus missing an open three-pointer in the final seconds.
MU improved to 4-11 at Madison Square Garden since 2012. The Golden Eagles are 3-7 in the building under Wojciechowski.