Anna Martin scored 24 points and Brittany Hrynko added 17 to help seventh-seeded DePaul beat Marquette 77-69 on Saturday in the second round of the Big East women's tournament.
The Blue Demons will face second-seeded Connecticut in the quarterfinals on Sunday night. DePaul played UConn on Feb. 10 and had a travel nightmare getting to Storrs. Because of the winter storm that blanketed the area the Blue Demons were forced to fly in the morning of the game. They ended up losing by 47.
DePaul (21-10) also didn't have Martin for that game as she was sidelined with a deep bone bruise on her left knee and missed eight games.
''We are a much better basketball team than we played in Storrs,'' DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. ''When most people wouldn't have showed up. All that stuff we did to get there, we did the right thing. That's not the reason we got waxed by 47. UConn's very talented players kicked our butt.''
On Saturday the Blue Demons found themselves down 40-36 early in the second half before going on a 17-4 run to take a 53-44 lead with just over 10 minutes left. Martin got the run started.
''I felt like they hit the shots and we didn't,'' said Marquette coach Terri Mitchell of DePaul's spurt. ''They did a tremendous job in transition. They were shooting very poorly and they changed it all around. Anna said I'm going to do something about that.''
The Golden Eagles (16-15) were only able to get within seven the rest of the way.
Arlesia Morse scored 16 points to lead Marquette.
Unlike the first few games of the day where offense was at a premium, these two teams put points up. DePaul led 35-34 at the end of an entertaining first half. Martin had 13 points.
