No. 6 Duke tops No. 15 Marquette, 15-8

Peter Koutroumpis, Triangle Sports Network

WAUWATOSA, WISC. – The sixth-ranked Duke Blue Devils posted their third win in a row, and beat the 15th-ranked Marquette Golden Eagles 15-8 in front of 4,575 in attendance at Hart Park on Saturday.

Senior midfielder Tanner Scott tallied a career-high four points (3 goals, 1 assist) while Myles Jones and Justin Guterding added hat tricks to lead the Blue Devils (10-4).

Though Jack Bruckner was silent in scoring after posting a combined 12 goals against Virginia and Stony Brook earlier in the week, he helped make room for Deemer Class, Case Matheis, and Kyle Keenan who added two goals each.

For the second game in a row, Kyle Rowe was effective at the faceoff-X, winning 14-of-18 draws with seven ground balls to help Duke establish possession, while goalkeeper Danny Fowler made 11 saves to support the defense.

Conor Gately and Ryan McNamara each scored two apiece amongst six scorers for Marquette (10-4), as Jimmy Danaher made 14 saves in the loss.

Both teams had their share of opportunities to score.

While Duke narrowly outshot Marquette 42-39, it claimed ball possession more often and took advantage to successfully convert on its offensive sequences more often.

Duke led 7-2 during the opening 15 minutes of play, and held a 9-4 lead at halftime.

It was a deficit the Golden Eagles couldn’t erase, playing the Blue Devils even in the third at a goal apiece while being outscored 5-3 in the fourth.

Notes: The win marked the 10th time in the last 11 years the program has reached 10-plus victories in a season…In finishing the game with four points, Jones became Duke’s top-scoring midfielder in program history with 149 career points, passing Jim Gonnella’s previous mark of 145 points…The Blue Devils travel to Philadelphia next weekend for the 2015 ACC Tournament at PPL Park. As the No. 4 seed, Duke will play top-ranked Notre Dame on Friday in a rematch of the two teams’ regular-season meeting that took place back on Apr. 4 and ended in a 15-10 win for the Irish.