Hauser brothers help No. 12 Marquette roll into DePaul game

Marquette's Sam and Joey Hauser became the first set of brothers in Big East Conference history to win awards in the same week Monday.

Sam garnered Player of the Week honors after averaging 28 points and 7.5 rebounds in wins over Georgetown and Providence, while Joey earned the Freshman of the Week award for contributing 10.5 points and 6.0 rebounds.

The Hausers -- and for that matter, the No. 12 Golden Eagles -- try to keep their roll going Wednesday night in Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee when long-time regional rival DePaul visits for a Big East matchup.

Marquette's come-from-behind 79-68 win Sunday over Providence saw it wipe out an eight-point halftime deficit, in large part because Sam Hauser followed up a career-high 31 points at Georgetown with 25 more against the Friars.

Sam and Joey teamed up for 12 straight points at one stage to keep Providence at arm's length.

"Joey and Sam have amazing chemistry," Golden Eagles coach Steve Wojciechowski said. "They play really, really well together."

It doesn't hurt that they have the Big East's best shot-maker at their side in Markus Howard.

The 5-foot-11 Howard bounced back from a back injury that limited him to three minutes at Georgetown, matching his conference-leading 24 points thanks in large part to a 14-of-16 performance at the foul line against Providence.

Since opening conference play with an absolute clunker on New Year's night in an 89-69 loss at St. John's, Marquette (16-3, 5-1) has registered five straight wins and trails only No. 18 Villanova in the conference. That probably doesn't surprise many.

This probably does: DePaul (11-6, 3-3) is tied for third in the league.

After years of almost incomprehensible futility -- once a national power, it has lost 20 games in six straight seasons and not logged a winning season since 2006-07 -- the Blue Demons are playing solid basketball.

A 97-93 win Saturday night at Seton Hall gave DePaul a sweep over the Pirates. Its other conference win was an upset at St. John's that ended the Red Storm's one week as a Top 25 outfit. Simply put, the Blue Demons aren't the automatic out they have been for most of the past 20 years.

"We're at the most important stage of our program in that we're figuring out how to win, particularly late-game situations," coach Dave Leitao said after the win at St. John's.

Of late, DePaul's top player has been 6-9 sophomore forward Paul Reed, who averaged 20.5 points and 13 rebounds last week. Reed's 14 rebounds Saturday night were only five fewer than Seton Hall collected as a team.

And Reed is just the fourth-leading scorer on the team behind Max Strus (18.3), Eli Cain (13.4) and Femi Olujobi (12.7). Cain became the first player in program history recently to surpass 1,400 points, 350 assists and 150 3-pointers.

But the Blue Demons will have to face the conference's best home-court advantage this season. The Golden Eagles are 13-0 in front of their fans, winning 10 times by double figures.

--Field Level Media