Women’s Basketball win two of three to get above .500
Junior guard Darrione Rogers drives past Pirates forward Alex Allesch for the contested layup during Wednesday’s 94-89 win against Seton Hall.
DePaul at Seton Hall
DePaul had a full slate with three games this week. Monday’s game fell short against Seton Hall and had them on a stretch of two losses in a row. Wednesday, the Pirates came to Wintrust Arena, and the Blue Demons avenged the Monday loss, winning by six. Then, Saturday at Providence saw another offensive explosion as sophomore Aneesah Morrow had a monster 31-point, 22-rebound performance.
The Blue Demons fell to Seton Hall by a score of 89-82 in South Orange, N.J. Monday night. Pirates’ senior Lauren Park-Lane had 39-points, breaking the Seton Hall single-game scoring record.
This was the most points DePaul had given up to a single player this season.
Monday’s game was the Jan. 28 rescheduled matchup with Seton Hall. The original game wasn’t played due to DePaul not having the conference minimum of seven available scholarship players, as the Demons were missing several due to injury.
Just as the season looked to shift in favor of the Blue Demons following two straight wins, the team has now quickly dropped two in-a-row and are back at .500.
Morrow and junior Darrione Rogers both scored 22 points in the game, leading the way for DePaul.
After leading in the first quarter by four, the Blue Demons proceeded to allow 33 second-quarter points and were outscored by 13.
As much as the offense tried to keep up with the Pirates, the defense let the team down. The Blue Demons rank dead last in the Big East, allowing 71 points per game.
In 10 out of its 13 losses this season, De- Paul allowed its opponents to reach 80 or more points.
DePaul was able to bring the game closer in the third quarter, shooting 61% from the field and holding Seton Hall to 33%, and by the end of the quarter, the team brought the game to within five.
Everything fell apart in the fourth quarter. DePaul shot an atrocious 19% in the final period, making just four field goals the entire quarter.
Seton Hall successfully shot 54% in the fourth and got to the free throw line 13 times. With five games remaining, the schedule does not ease up for the Blue Demons. Three of the next five games will come against opponents ranked in the top five in the Big East which include, UConn, Villanova and Marquette.
Home vs. Seton Hall
“We’re tired of losing.”
Those were the words of Rogers, following DePaul’s intense, thrilling 94-89 win over Seton Hall Wednesday.
It was all offense at Wintrust for both teams as sophomore Aneesah Morrow led all scorers with 28 points and combined with Rogers for a total of 54 points in the game.
Four of out five starters finished in double figures. Senior Anaya Peoples added 13 points and junior Kendall Holmes had 15.
Defensively, DePaul had a game plan this time for Seton Hall Park-Lane. After her 39-point performance in Newark, New Jersey on Monday against the Blue Demons, the plan was to send a double team towards the 5-foot-3 guard once she crossed half- court, forcing her to pass the ball out.
Although it kept Park-Lane from scoring 30-plus points again, it allowed for senior Azana Barnes to tally a 29-point performance.
The game was neck-and-neck for all 40 minutes. Tied 41-41 at halftime, both teams had shot 50% from the field through the first two quarters.
There were 18 lead changes and 11 ties throughout the game. No team held a lead for more than 10 minutes, and both teams exchanged scoring runs one after another.
DePaul donned its black uniforms for the first time this season in the “Dark Mode” themed game.
Once the fourth quarter came, the in- tensity in the arena picked up as the game became more intense than it was in the first half.
The Blue Demons came up with timely, clutch plays in the final period. Whether it was a huge three from Rogers, Holmes or Peoples, DePaul delivered.
“We just came together as a team,” Rogers said. “We know the work that we put in, and I felt like overtime. And over these stretches of games, we haven’t been getting the outcome we want.”
With under four minutes left in the game, down 81-76, Morrow stole the ball from Park-Lane and raced down the court to lay it in for two. Just later, after another defensive stop, Rogers took the ball coast- to-coast, scored a basket and converted the and-one free throw, giving DePaul a 82-81 lead.
A Holmes three on the ensuing posses- sion increased the lead to 85-82. Then, a Peoples’ steal with under a minute and 30 seconds remaining sealed the victory for DePaul.
“It’s always about the players,” said head coach Doug Bruno. “I am just really excited for this group of players, because they have been fighting all year, and for them to be able to finish it tonight, they did a great job in the fourth of overcoming the fact that we got down and could have cashed it in and they just stayed strong.”
DePaul at Providence
The winning ways continued on Saturday. Bruno’s Blue Demons donned their black uniforms once again on the road against Providence. DePaul’s suffocating defense allowed for another impressive offensive performance, in the 86-64 win.
Morrow had her seventh 30-point game, scoring 31 in the win. She had her 21st double-double with 22 rebounds, a season-high. She surpassed Latasha Byears 22nd all- time in DePaul’s scoring ranks, with 1,437 career points.
Peoples had her best offensive showing of the season. She shot an efficient 77% from the field, with her season-high 17-points, it was her 15th game this season in double figures.
As for Rogers, who recent- ly surpassed the 1,000 career point mark, had a sequence offensive where she made Providence’s Grace Efosa hit the deck with a deadly behind-the- back dribble, into a stepback three, which went in.
Eight out of the 10 Blue Demon players who checked into the game got in the scoring column on Saturday.
A roller coaster of a second half the season, has seen DePaul lose four straight, win two straight and the cycle now repeats itself.
After collecting their second straight win, DePaul will face-off against Villanova on Tuesday Feb. 21. for the
second and final time of the regular season. Wildcats senior Maddy Seigrist, the favorite to win Big East player of the Year, had a 30-point performance in their last meeting on Jan. 11.
