DePaul women’s basketball opened up their game against Providence with a 27-2 run, setting the game out of each early en route to a 90-42 rout of the Friars.

Senior guard Brittany Hrynko tied a career high with eight steals and added 22 points and 9 assists in the victory. Three other Blue Demons joined her in double-figure point totals.

“We came out with a lot of energy, we were getting steals which created the easy baskets for us,” she said. “Just coming out ready to play and knocking down shots when they’re open.”

While the margin of victory was large, head coach Doug Bruno said that the team was focused on being ready for anything.

“You can come in and think this game was going to be an easy victory but (Providence) beat Villanova,” he said, referring to the Villanova team that beat DePaul earlier in the conference schedule. “Our players did a very good job of having focus this week.”

Providence fell to 5-15 overall and 2-7 in the Big East with the loss. DePaul (15-6, 7-2) stayed tied for second in the conference with Butler, both teams one game behind Seton Hall.

The Blue Demons rolled out to a large lead in the first five minutes. They forced four Providence turnovers and raced out to a 12-2 lead, which led to a Friars’ timeout with 15:52 to go in the first half. The Blue Demons kept piling on leading to the under-12 media timeout, adding nine more points to take a 21-2 lead with 11:28 to go in the half.

Providence broke their seven-minute scoring drought but DePaul continued to pile on the points. At the next timeout with 7:53 to go, the Blue Demons had stretched their lead to 31-6. 20 of those points had come off of 13 Friar turnovers.

While they did add to their lead, DePaul closed out the half sloppily. They were 2-10 from the field and allowed the Friars to make the score 43-18. However, in the final minute DePaul added six more points to make their halftime lead 49-18. Senior guard Brittany Hrynko led the scoring with 13 points.

The teams traded baskets for the first few minutes of the second half with the Blue Demons in front 57-27. Coming out of the under-16 media timeout, however, DePaul went on a 13-4 run that gave them a 70-31 lead with 12:43 to go. Providence had committed 25 turnovers at this point.

Bruno cleared his bench at that point, giving some of the younger players such as freshmen Mart’e Grays, Ashton Millender and Lauren Prochaska some minutes. They took an 81-38 lead into the under-8 timeout. Bruno did make a five-player switch after some sloppy play from the Blue Demons, giving the bench players a wake-up call.

“We coach possession by possession,” he said. “We’re still trying to win the games within the games and the group that was in there was giving up three second shots and was sloppy. I had to get their attention.

DePaul only allowed two more baskets the rest of the game with their bench players continuing the strong defense of the starters, finishing the match with a 90-42 victory.

The Blue Demons will play Georgetown on Jan. 30 at home as the third part of a four-game home stretch. They will host Villanova, who beat them earlier in the year, two days later.