ROSEMONT, Ill. -- DePaul clamped down on Marquette star Travis Diener with tough defense and physical play, while hitting the boards with a fury Thursday night.
The Blue Demons finished with 21 offensive rebounds and received career scoring nights from Sammy Mejia and reserve Lorenzo Thompson to beat No. 25 Marquette 85-72.
"I have so much respect for his game. We stayed focused on the game plan and that was not to let him get off," DePaul's Drake Diener said of his cousin, Travis.
Travis, averaging 20.8, managed just 15 on 5-of-14 shooting under pressure from LeVar Seals. And seven of his points came in the final two minutes when the game was pretty much decided.
"We crowded Travis as much as we could and that allowed us to disrupt their offensive flow," DePaul coach Dave Leitao said.
Mejia scored a career-high 26 points and Thompson had 17 off the bench, including 15 in the second half. Quemont Greer had 15 for the Blue Demons (11-4, 3-1 Conference USA) in the 100th meeting between the schools.
Dameon Mason's 24 points paced Marquette (14-3, 2-2) in what turned out to be a physical contest.
"They flat-out kicked us to the curb in rebounding," Marquette coach Tom Crean said. "That's as an atrocious a performance of blocking out as I've seen in the six years I've been here. ... That was a joke."
Of DePaul's 21 offensive rebounds, Thompson and Marlon Brumfield had four apiece, allowing DePaul to outscore Marquette by seven in second-chance points. Marquette also had 19 turnovers, leading to 22 DePaul points.
"We just weren't very good with the ball. We didn't play tough enough," Crean said.
And there was also the problem of guarding Mejia, who constantly maneuvered into the lane for easy jumpers. He was 9-of-15 from the field.
"My first shot was a layup and I just took it from there. I got open and just let it ride," Mejia said.
"He's a 6-foot-6 point guard and he's a tough matchup," Mason said of Mejia. "He can see over guys and get in the lane and he did that tonight."
DePaul smothered Marquette in the first seven minutes of the second half, holding the Golden Eagles to just two baskets while building on a seven-point halftime lead.
Mejia hit a baseline jumper, Greer banked in a shot and then Mejia sank a 3-pointer off the break, putting the Blue Demons up 48-36.
After a timeout, Drake Diener broke down the Marquette defense, drove the lane and dished to the 6-foot-8, 260-pound Thompson for a layup and a 14-point lead.
Travis Diener's 3-pointer minutes later had Marquette back to within eight but Drake answered with one if his own to put it back to 11.
After a follow by Draelon Burns and a turnaround jumper by Greer, the lead sailed to 15 with nine minutes to play.
Marquette clipped it to nine but Thompson hit a pair of free throws and then hit a basket as he was falling down and the Golden Eagles' comeback chances were finished.
Mejia's 3-pointer with one second to go in the first half gave DePaul a 39-32 lead.
The Blue Demons played the final 8:30 without Greer after he picked up his second foul, but lost only one point off their lead.
Greer had a thunderous dunk and two free throws in an 11-2 run that allowed the Blue Demons to take a 24-16 lead.
Marquette had 11 first-half turnovers, but stayed close thanks to 10 points from Mason and 52 percent shooting.
Marquette leads the all-time series 58-42.
