The tale of two halves continued for the DePaul women’s basketball. The Blue Demons hung on for a 66-62 win despite a furious second half comeback by the Scarlet Knights that pulled them within two points late.Keisha Hampton led all scorers with 22 points, on 8-16 shooting. She added seven assists and five rebounds, but also had eight of the team’s 15 turnovers. Sam Quigley pitched in with 14 and Felicia Chester had 11. April Sykes led the way for Rutgers with 15 points. Chelsey Lee and Khadijah Rushdan each added 13 for the Scarlet Knights as well.

Their scoring was almost enough to topple a Blue Demons team that once again played an uneven game. On Saturday against Marquette, DePaul shot 10-33 in the first half and trailed by three at halftime before coming out in the second firing on all cylinders, on their way to a 64-56 win. Tonight, the Blue Demons started the game with five consecutive 3-pointers, led Rutgers by as much as 19 in the first half, and went to the locker room with a 16-point lead before almost giving the game away in the second half.

“I was never comfortable even with a 19-point lead,” said Head Coach Doug Bruno after the game. “But at the same time, we’ve made a habit this year of having big leads and then not staying with the same focus that got us the leads. Tonight I think the fact wasn’t so much of us just losing focus as it was that Rutgers is really good. They’re just too talented of kids to not fight when their backs were against the wall like they were.”

Rutgers Head Coach Vivian Stringer said her team started the game surprised.

“[The] truth of the matter is that we came out kind of lackadaisical, stunned,” Stringer said. “I was sharing in the beginning that we need to play all of these guys.identify people that need to be challenged above the 3-point line. And we obviously didn’t. We came out there kind of stabbing at them. And then they showed [us]. And then it’s like next thing you know, you’re down by 19.”

But in the second half, Stringer’s team caught up. After DePaul jumped up 50-34 thanks to a Hampton basket with 14:28 left, the Scarlet Knights went on a 19-5 run, bringing the score to 55-53 with 5:37 left.

“I liked the spirit,” Stringer said of her team’s comeback. “As soon as we go down like that, we’re generally dead, but maybe this team is finally learning to fight.”

Much of that fight came from the defensive side of the ball. Rutgers came out for the second half top with an improved energy on defense, and DePaul seemingly left its shooting touch in the locker room. After shooting 16-29 in the first half, including 9-17 on 3-pointers, the Blue Demons went 8-22 in the final 20 minutes, including one 3-point field goal (1-6 from behind the arc).

“We just needed to shake things up, change the defense, and pick up people that were gonna play the shooters much tighter,” Stringer said.

Bruno gave credit to an in-your-face Rutgers defense for their troubles.

“Part of the psyche of the game is, Rutgers squeezed us defensively, Rutgers turned up the heat, Rutgers got in our grill because they were fighting for a game, a game that we needed to have and they needed to have,” Bruno said. “They did a great job of fighting. So now all of a sudden the psyche of the game has people not as loosey-goosey as you are when the game starts. I teach our players all the time, you come out when the game starts, you’re up 15-3, that’s a 12-point lead. Would you be comfortable with a 12-point lead against a talented team with five [minutes] to go in the game, or seven to go in the game? I think not.”

But DePaul made baskets late when they needed to, and held on for a close victory at McGrath.

“We just kept our composure,” Hampton said. “We couldn’t get too frantic out there. Move the ball, get a good shot, stop the run.”

And they did stop it. But just barely.