“Sleigh rides and snow angels don’t necessarily go hand in hand with full court pressure,” Bruno said while holding back a smile.
DePaul women’s basketball head coach Doug Bruno had every right to be in the holiday mood after his team defeated Hampton University 86-67 Monday night in Lincoln Park at McGrath-Phillips Arena.
The Blue Demons (8-4) bounced back after Friday’s loss to No. 2 UConn.
“Around the holiday season, it’s a lot for a young athlete to compartmentalize and grasp the warm, fuzzy feelings of Christmas – then being able to shut it off and turn into that junkyard dog that’s needed for high level competition.” Bruno said.
“Throughout this whole holiday season I think our players have a done a great job of putting it all out there on the court, and still enjoying each other as well as their families off the court.
Bruno said he has a team full of “junkyard dogs” – and tonight, Chanise Jenkins led the pack.
Jenkins, a junior from Chicago who came into the game averaging 8.4 points and just under four rebounds per game, would see her season averages skyrocket on her way to 19 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists performance. She would fall short of the illustrious triple double by two assists.
“It feels good to embrace the offense and just kind of slow the game down, in a sense,” Jenkins said.“Coach kept me grounded, and preached energy, energy, energy. So I took that, remained patient while staying aggressive, and did what I could to help us win tonight.”
Nothing came easy for DePaul tonight as the Blue Demons shot around 37 percent for the duration of the first half. Hamptons’ guards made it tough on DePaul’s second leading scorer, sophomore Jessica January, holding her to just five points on 2-9 shooting.
“We didn’t finish very well in the first half,” Bruno said.“There were about 10 points left on the floor in that first half, we just didn’t make the shots.”
3-point field goals were the difference in the first half. The Blue Demons hit six of their first tries in the opening period. Jenkins would hit one of those three pointers, and go on to make her other two attempts in the game, finishing 3-3.
DePaul’s leading scorer Brittany Hrynko was up to her ole’ tricks, per usual , as the senior shot eight of twelve from the field and matched Jenkins’ offensive output with the 19 points.
Sophomore Brandi Harvey-Carr didn’t stuff the stat sheet, but her presence on both ends of the floor was felt during her 13 minutes of action. She scored five points and pull down three rebounds over that span.
DePaul’s defense was great as they forced 18 turnovers while holding Hampton to a mere 36 percent from the floor.
DePaul’s stretch of four games in the last 12 days ends on a high note as each victory have been a double-digit margin.
The team will head into a brief holiday hiatus before returning to action next Tuesday against the Illinois State Redbirds, at 2pm in Bloomington, Illinois.