Even though DePaul walked off the court with a victory in a game where it never trailed for the last 37 minutes, the Blue Demons sure made it difficult.

The Blue Demons (9-3) pushed their winning streak to seven games with a 69-61 win over UMBC (2-10) Saturday afternoon. UMBC led only once – with a 5-2 score a few minutes into the game – but DePaul grinded out another one at home.

Cleveland Melvin scored a game-high 24 points and snatched eight rebounds. Melvin showed off a complete offensive game on the afternoon. He sank nine free throws and hit a three-pointer, and also slammed home a few alley-oops and scored after offensive rebounds.

Otherwise, it was a fairly sloppy game. Brandon Young shot 2-of-13 from the field, and the team as a whole went 4-14 from three-point range. The Demons were haphazard with the ball as well, turning the ball over 18 times. They telegraphed some passes and made bad decisions with the ball, leading to UMBC having five players with two or more steals.

DePaul was stymied a bit by the UMBC zone defense, which head coach Oliver Purnell called an “amoeba” defense because it was between a 1-2-2 and a 1-3-1 set.

“We worked against it the last couple days in practice,” Purnell said of the zone. “I thought we could shred it by getting the ball inside, but we weren’t patient enough.”

Additionally, the Demons didn’t dominate in transition (only six fast-break points) or convincingly win the war in the paint (outscoring UMBC 30-28). Good half-court possessions were hard to come by.

“We weren’t really executing, moving the ball around a lot in the zone they were playing,” Melvin said. “Once we made one pass, we took a shot. We were putting up threes and not moving the ball around enough.”

DePaul’s defense did a good job in neutralizing UMBC’s best players. The Retrievers’ top three scorers – Ryan Cook, Chase Plummer and Brett Roseboro – shot a combined 11-for-37, and the team as a whole missed a big number of layups and putbacks. Also, UMBC went 8-for-17 from the free throw line.

“We know what we gotta do to win the game, we have to pressure the ball a lot,” Melvin said. “That’s what we are, a pressure team. It helps on our defense, and offense, too.”

Yet, there they were. The Retrievers kept answering any Demons run, continuously clawing their way back into the game. Despite trailing by double-digits six times in the second half, UMBC found themselves with the ball and down only six with about two minutes left. Cook, though, pushed the ball upcourt after a rebound and sailed a pass into the crowd, effectively clinching the contest.

Jamee Crockett finished a thundering alley-oop and scored 11 points. Worrel Clahar had a typically well-rounded game with 10 points, five assists, four steals and three boards.

DePaul puts its win streak, the team’s longest in 19 years, on the line against Loyola at home next Saturday.