A decent home crowd trickled in on Super Bowl Sunday for no. 17 DePaul’s matchup against Seton Hall. The final score shows a dominant performance by DePaul in an 86-60 shellacking, but it was hard earned.
The Blue Demons came out dominant in the first quarter, going on a 16-2 run between the six and two-minute mark. Seton Hall’s leading scorer, guard JaQuan Johnson, was held scoreless through the first frame.
Things would not be some easy in the second quarter as center Jacqui Grant sat out the entire second quarter with two fouls. Seton hall took advantage and slowly chipped away at the lead over the quarter. With the size disadvantage, Seton Hall outrebounded DePaul by five and got six points on 3-3 shooting from 6-foot-4 center Lubirdia Gordon. DePaul let Seton Hall guard Kaela Hilaire streak down the court on the final possession of the quarter for a layup to send the Pirates into the break down just five. DePaul coach Doug Bruno would need to make changes at the half to stop the bleeding.
“At half time, we just really focused on is that we held Seton Hall to 10 points in the first quarter and we held Seton Hall to 24 points in the second quarter…that’s a huge difference,” Bruno said. “24 is a 96 point pace, 10 is a 40 point pace, so we just tried really to focus on that function,”
And the Demons came out attacking in the 3rd quarter. They would go on a 24-5 run over the course of the quarter. Grant would come out angry after playing just seven minutes in the first half and scored seven points on 3-3 shooting and pulled down 8 rebounds. Those rebounds helped DePaul out rebound Seton Hall 22-6 in the quarter. The Blue Demons’ defense was also stifling, holding the Pirates to 32.3% shooting and even forcing a five second violation halfway through the quarter.
DePaul was able to coast through most of the fourth quarter as they would eventually get the comfortable victory. The final frame of action saw Deja Cage and Claire McMahon, two players not part of the usual rotation, get some action.
Senior Brooke Shulte continued her fantastic season as she lead the Demon’s with 22 points and also grabbed 12 rebounds to get her 4th straight double-double. She also was guarding Jackson most of the game and held her to just 11 points on 3-14 from the field. Tanita Allen also had an efficient 19 off the bench on 8-11 shooting, including some tough transition finishes. Allen, who had a big game when the team last played Seton Hall, said she is always ready to contribute.
“I just come out and try and play my best and give my team the best that I can be,” Allen said.
On her strong finishes at the hoop she praised the coaching staff.
“It’s all about practice,” she said. “We do guard, post breakdown and go against the pads…So our coach makes sure the contact is believable and he tries to make it so it’s hard to finish, so when you finish in the game it feels like a piece of cake.”
