DePaul Wins Third-Straight BIG EAST Title
Box Score | Marquette Quotes | DePaul Quotes
CHICAGO -- DePaul still rules the Big East.
The No. 1 seed Blue Demons claimed their third straight conference women’s basketball tournament championship with an 88-74 victory over second seed Marquette on Monday night at Wintrust Arena.
DePaul (28-5) completed a Big East sweep that also featured a regular season title.
Guard Lexi Held scored a game-high 31 points and earned Most Outstanding Player honors. Chante Stonewall had 22 while Kelly Campbell added 16 as the Blue Demons collectively scored 30 points off 27 Golden Eagles turnovers.
Selena Lott paced Marquette (24-8) with 26 points while Lauren Van Kleunen added 22.
Campbell, Stonewall and Van Kleunen earned all-tournament honors along with St. John’s Leilani Correa and Seton Hall’s Shadeen Samuels.
The DePaul-Marquette title clash was the fourth consecutive year that the rivals — separated by just 90 miles — met for the league title.
The Golden Eagles jumped to an early advantage, opening a 15-9 first quarter lead after seven minutes. But the Blue Demons nearly erased it late as Stonewall hit a 3-pointer with 1:22 showing and Held followed with a 2-point buzzer-beating jumper to trim the Marquette lead to 18-17.
DePaul took advantage of Marquette turnovers — 13 in the first half — to build a 32-24 advantage midway through the second quarter. Held scored 10 points and Campbell added eight more, helping the Blue Demons to a 45-33 halftime lead.
DePaul opened the second half with seven unanswered points and later built leads of as many as 19 points. The margin hit 20 for the first time at 66-46 with 2:07 showing in the third quarter after a Held 3-pointer.
By quarter’s end the Blue Demons were up 72-50.
DePaul led by as many as 23 points early in the fourth quarter while Marquette got no closer than 14 points late and with the game out of reach.
It was a game that featured Marquette’s size and strength against DePaul’s speed, pressure and 3-point shooting.
The Golden Eagles dominated inside, out-rebounding the Blue Demons 38-29 and scoring 46 points in the paint. The Blue Demons scored 24 points off fast breaks and were 14-of-24 (58 percent) on 3 point shooting.
DePaul was only the second top seed to win the tourney since the Big East realignment. In seven previous years, the No. 2 seed has claimed three championships.
Marquette won the tourney title in 2017 at the Al McGuire Center while DePaul also claimed titles in 2018 and 2019 at Wintrust Arena.
Next up for both the Blue Demons and Golden Eagles are certain NCAA tournament bids. The 64-team women’s tournament will be unveiled on Monday, March 16.