ROSEMONT, Ill. – No. 23 ranked DePaul women’s basketball is headed to the Big East tournament finals.

Jasmine Penny scored 26 points, Chanise Jenkins scored 23 points and Megan Rogowski added 21 to beat Marquette, 100-90. It was another solid team effort from the Blue Demons as they are now set to play the no.2 seed St. John’s Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Allstate Arena.

“I’m so happy for my team that we’ve made it this far with the work we have put in,” Penny said. “We still have one more game to go.”

DePaul (26-6) withstood a late Marquette surge as the Golden Eagles cut DePaul’s lead to six with a minute remaining. DePaul led by as many as 19 in the game.

DePaul’s 100 points were a season high and it was the first time the team reached the mark since 2010.

“I thought we did a good job of offensively balancing our distribution so we could get inside-outside balance,” DePaul head coach Doug Bruno said. “Jenkins and Brittany Hrynko did a great job running the show and Penny did a great job of taking it to the basket”

The Blue Demons set the pace from the beginning by going on an 11-0 run to take a 24-14 lead. DePaul’s up-and-down style got them to the line and often. DePaul finished 26-40 from the free throw line, including 15-20 in the first half.
For the first time since 2004, the Blue Demons had three 20-point scorers in a single game.

“It’s all credit to coach who says we all have the green light (to shoot),” Jenkins said. “It’s a team full of talented players who love to share the basketball and score. The balance within each other means anyone can get off on any given night.”

DePaul led 55-38 at halftime. In the second half, the Blue Demons continued to work the ball inside.  DePaul outscored Marquette 48-36 in the paint.

The source of those points in the paint was Penny. She scored 16 of her 26 points after halftime and finished 10-11 from the field.

“We definitely wanted to be in attack mode to get in the paint,” Bruno said.

Marquette guard Katie Young led the Golden Eagles with 25 points.  Guard Brooklyn Pumroy also had 21 while senior Katherine Plouffe had a double double. Plouffe finished with 19 points and a career high 17 rebounds.

The Golden Eagles went on a 10-4 run over a span of 1:13 to bring the game within six points with one minute to go.

“I thought our players gave everything they had,” Marquette coach Terri Mitchell said. “I thought we came out with a lot of heart, but I just think we ran out of gas. I couldn’t be more proud.”

The Blue Demons kept calm and were able to get to the paint. Jenkins and guard Brittany Hrynko scored all seven of DePaul’s remaining points. Hrynko finished with 11 points, five rebounds and six assists.

With the win, DePaul has now won 15 of its last 16 games. Incidentally, the last loss for the team was on Feb. 18 at Marquette. The Golden Eagles forced DePaul to shoot a season-low 35 percent to upset the Blue Demons, 80-74.

Bruno said before the game he asked his team who the last team to beat the Blue Demons was.

“They said ‘Marquette’ and I said ‘No, you beat yourselves at Marquette,'” Bruno said. “We played some really unintelligent basketball down the stretch. Marquette is a great team, but I really think in that game if we would have taken care of some of the fundamentals, we would have had a better chance to win.

“But if we didn’t lose on Feb. 18,” Bruno added. “I don’t think we would have regained our focus.”

The Big East finals appearance is the first in school history.  Bruno said that the finals appearance was more for the players than him. He also noted a key similarity between the two clubs, while also adding a bit of humor into his press conference.  

“It’s two Vincentian schools playing for the Big East championship tomorrow,” Bruno said. “There’s a little bit of a Holy War going on.”