NEW YORK – The Cinderella dreams of the DePaul men’s basketball team were quickly snuffed out Tuesday afternoon in the opening game of the Big East conference tournament, as the UConn Huskies went to work, easily downing the Blue Demons 97-71 and ending DePaul’s season for good.”For me personally, I’ve been through it before,” DePaul Head Coach Oliver Purnell said of the consistent losing this season. “When I was at Dayton we didn’t win any league games the first year. When I was at Clemson we won three.so it was probably a little bit easier on me than it was on our guys.”
Now the Blue Demons can begin focusing on next season, thanks to big games from three young pups.
Prolific scorer Kemba Walker notched 26 points, guard Jeremy Lamb had 19 and Alex Oriakhi had 13 points and 19 rebounds off the bench for the Huskies. Brandon Young led the Blue Demons with 20 points, while Jeremiah Kelly had 15 and Moses Morgan added 14. But for UConn, it is hard not to be happy with a 28-point win.
“[S]ometimes we had defensive lapses and played the scoreboard a little too much, but beyond that we’re happy to get a win,” UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun said after the game.”You don’t say ‘How,’ you say ‘Are we playing tomorrow?’ And yes, we are playing tomorrow.”
The game was never in much doubt, as the Huskies pulled away 10 minutes into the first period. DePaul kept it close for a bit, and at the 11-minute mark were down only 15-14. But over the next five minutes, UConn went on a 15-0 run to make the score 30-14. The run was sparked by Lamb, who scored nine of those points.
“He’s really good. He played great against us there,” Purnell said. “He’s a tough matchup for us. He’s long, and who do you put on walker and who do you put on Lamb?”
While DePaul pushed late, cutting the lead to 68-61 with 8:52 left, the injury-plagued Blue Demons simply did not have enough options to make a serious run. That meant freshmen Young and Morgan were the ones called on to produce under pressure.
“We got to the point late in the year where they’re the only guys who have the firepower,” Purnell said. “Where are you gonna get the offense from? And if you remember, Moses struggled early and in the big east, and now he’s finally kind of hit his stride, so he became an offensive threat for us. Jimmy drew sprained his back the other night against Syracuse and he’s slowed, so there’s no really [nobody else]. JK maybe but that’s it. So those two have to score for us.”
It was no match for Walker and Lamb, who combined to shoot 15-26 from the floor and 14-16 at the line for a total of 45 points. Lamb, a freshman point guard, was especially active in the first half, getting 17 of his 19 points during that period. Much of that was because of the attention Walker attracts.
“He got those open looks and it’s important that he has those, and I really thought that at West Virginia because they load up on Kemba’s side all the time, that he can come off either a down screen or a flat screen when we send Kemba out. Now it changes their game plan a great deal, and I thought that’s exactly what happened [today]. He opened the first half and made shots for us.”
Young said Lamb’s fast start motivated him in the second half to be more aggressive.
“He thinks that since we’re DePaul he can do anything he wants to,” Young said. “But I took that as disrespect, so I had to come out a little bit more aggressive and do things for my team and just play smart.”
The Huskies’ presence inside, bolstered by Oriakhi off the bench, was especially dangerous. They scored 50 points in the paint compared to DePaul’s 20, and outrebounded the Blue Demons 46-22.
“We just got decimated [at the position] as the year went on,” Purnell said of the Blue Demons’ lack of size. “Devin hill’s not there, Cleveland Melvin’s no longer there; those are our two best shot blockers, and they’re no longer there. And if Tony [Freeland] and Krys [Faber] are in foul trouble, which they are most games, you’re down to Jimmy [Drew] or Mario Stula as your power forwards.”
Now the team will have the entire offseason to try and improve for next season.
“I told our guys, prior to the game that I really appreciated all the effort they made this year,” Purnell said. “They, as much as any team I’ve ever had, they try to do what we ask them to do. And they make coming to work every day fun because if they weren’t ready and we got on them, they responded. And hopefully we learned a lot of lessons, not just for basketball and next season, but all of our guys including the seniors, for life, in terms of dealing with adversity, battling, staying strong, staying together. Just a good group of men.