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The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

DePaul women’s basketball rolls to sixth consecutive win

DePaul women’s basketball team was voted No. 1 in the Big East conference in the preseason and the team is starting to play like it.

Since losing to the conference’s top teams in Creighton and St. John’s, the Blue Demons have won six games in a row.

The six-game winning streak is DePaul’s longest since the 2010-11 season.

In the past week, the team came away with victories over rival Marquette at home and Providence on the road.

Megan Rogowski scored 19 points and four other Blue Demons finished in double digits Wednesday to lead DePaul women’s basketball to a 91-85 victory over Marquette.

At Providence, Jasmine Penny led the Blue Demons Saturday in a 74-63 win. Again, four other Blue Demons finished in double digits.

Against Marquette, DePaul (17-5, 8-2) was in control throughout the game despite Marquette (14-6, 5-4) shooting 50 percent and outrebounding DePaul, 52-29. DePaul forced 28 turnovers , however, and went 11- 26 from downtown. Rogowski led the team with five 3-pointers.

Bruno said he was happy with the win, but was critical of the team’s performance.

“We executed many great possessions on that floor tonight and we still had a regression night as well,” Bruno said. “The reason we’ve won 12 out of the last 14 is we’ve been really strong defensively and really rebounding well as an undersized basketball team.

“Tonight, we had some great possessions and then we also had some possessions where we didn’t rebound, defend or play with the offensive intelligence necessary to keep getting better,” he said.

Some of DePaul’s better basketball happened when it came to sharing the ball. Sophomore Chanise Jenkins tied a career-high in assists with ten in the Marquette game.

The Blue Demons finished both games with at least 20 assists, the 13th time this season the team has reached that mark.

“The key to getting everyone involved is just passing the ball around because eventually someone will get open,” Jenkins said. “Just by all the guards getting open looks is the way we score.”

Against Providence (6-15, 1-9), the Blue Demons pulled out another competitive road win. Of this six game stretch, four of the victories have come away from Chicago.

Brittany Hrynko, who was put on a watchlist for the Dawn Stanley Award, which recongizes the nation’s best guard, scored 10 points and tied her career high in rebounds with nine.

The Blue Demons outrebounded Providence 48-40 after being outrebounded 52-29.

“We’ve been undersized all year, but we can’t let that get in our way,” Rogowski said, following the Marquette game. “We knew (Marquette) was big and rebounding was huge.”

Bruno said his team is getting used to playing undersized. Still, the long-time coach said his team has a lot of areas to improve upon.

With rematches against St. John’s and Creighton still to play, the Big East is very much up for grabs. Bruno wants his team to eliminate the slippage of unintelligent plays. The Blue Demons went through stretches in both games where they let in easy baskets and made careless turnovers.

“This league (the Big East) is so much better than it’s getting credit for,” Bruno said. “I’m really thrilled about the fact that our team has come through the first half of the Big East season and we’re in grabbing distance of still claiming the regular season Big East championship.

“We’ve still got to get better every game,” he said. “Coach Bruno’s job is to not allow slippage and when there is slippage, I’ve got to address it. That’s what we’re doing.

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