In what has been a recurring theme of Big East Conference play, the DePaul Blue Demons lost a game in which they held a 2nd half lead. In seven of DePaul’s eleven Big East games, the Blue Demons have either held a lead or been tied at the half. For the sixth time, DePaul lost the lead and lost the game.
Before we get into this game, a little background on the Hoyas. During this season, two scholarship players have transferred and another scholarship player has not dressed for several games in a row. To say the Hoyas are short-handed is an understatement. Going into this game, Georgetown had seven scholarship players on the active roster.
This loss was inexplicable, in that Georgetown started the game without their go-to playmaker, Mac McClung. That left six scholarship players dressing for the game. During the second half of the game, their best all around player, Omer Yurtseven, was injured with an ankle injury. That left five scholarship players. With 1:49 left, another starter, Jamorko Pickett, fouled out. That left four scholarship players in the game with the Hoyas up 4. This meant that the Georgetown had to end the game playing a walk-on.
DePaul Ends Super Frustrating Week 0-2 on Games that they Lead Throughout
Free-Throws and Free-Throw Rate Will Be the End to Me
DePaul played two road games this week against teams in the top half of the Big East. The Blue Demons came in and gave it their all in both.
DePaul lead at half-time against Seton Hall and lead until the final 5:27 of the game.
DePaul lead or tied Marquette for 38 minutes and 44 seconds.
DePaul lost both.
DePaul held Marquette to a season low 22.6% from 3 point land. The Golden Eagles had more turnovers than the Blue Demons. DePaul held Seton Hall to 22% from 3 point land and caused 20 turnovers.
DePaul still lost both.
DePaul made 9 more shots from the field than Marquette and lost.
Marquette made ONE shot from the field in the final 6 minutes of the game, a game that they trailed or were tied throughout and won.
DePaul, with the lead, made more field goals in the final 6 minutes of the game and still lost.
Only the 2nd time this season when the Blue Demons had over a point per possession and still lost. The other was against Villanova.
Blue Demons Could Not Take Advantage of Seton Hall’s Struggles from 3-Point Land and the Free-Throw Line
If there was ever a game that was ripe for the taking, it was this one. In a game with 47 fouls and 49 free-throws, DePaul blew a nine point lead to lose to the Seton Hall Pirates 64-57. Granted, it was a game between the two team with the highest free-throw rate in the conference. It was ugly. The only reason that DePaul was in the game was due to the awfulness of the Pirates from the free-throw line and 3 point land. Seton Hall shot 29 free-throws at a rate of 48.3%, and a horrific 22.2% from 3 point land on 27 shots. These flaws were the only thing going for the Demons.
So how did DePaul lose? As I mentioned in the preview to this game, if DePaul shot better than 16% from 3 point land and defended better from 3 Point range, the Demons might have a chance. They did just that, but, and this is a big but, the Demons had 20 turnovers, shot 26.7% from three-point land, and 35.7% from two-point land. Dreadful. Yet they were in the game until the final minute. Down by 5 at the 1:11 point, Darious Hall drew a charging foul on the Pirates’ Quincy McKnight. DePaul attacked the rim, Charlie Moore missed a jumper and Jaylen Butz got the rebound, drew the defense to his side, and passed to a cutting Romeo Weems who lined up for a dunk that would bring the Blue Demons to within 3, but as he had 4 other times in the game, Seton Hall’s Romaro Gill blocked the dunk at the rim to preserve the 5 point lead. It was the last great effort of the game. A couple of free-throws and a couple of missed shots lead to the final line of seven.
You Hold your Opponent to 22% from 3 and your opponent shoots 48% from the free-throw line, and you still lose?
This is going to be a short post. There will be no video highlights. There will be no “good job by you” section. DePaul blew it. With all the momentum in the word, with a hungry fan base being reawakened, with national media paying attention, DePaul has blown it by losing 6 of their first 7 Big East games. Could they rebound and win 7 or the final 11 games? It’s possible, but unlikely because they have lost the ability to hit from 3 point range, while also losing the ability to stop their opponent from hitting from distance.
Throw This Game, and The Conference Season in the Toilet
Quick Recap of the Game
The path to success in this game was laid out in the pregame post, limit turnovers, rebound to a draw, shoot 30% from 3 and hold the Johnnies to under 35% from 3.
Limit Turnovers? DePaul did great! They had 3 less Turnovers than the Red Storm!
Rebound to a Draw? Yes! The Demons had one more than St. John’s!
I’m loving it, tell me more. So the Demons Only had to shoot 30% from 3 Point Land and have the Red Storm shoot under 35%? I like our chances.
From 3, St. John’s shot 40.6% and DePaul shot 16%, and there goes the Conference season.
When your crappy shooting opponent shoots 40% from 3 and you shoot 16%
DePaul Struggled in the first half but went to the half tied. LJ Figueroa of St. John’s killed the Demons going 5-9 from 3 point range almost single-handedly keeping the Red Storm in the game. After starting 2-6 from 3 point land, The Demons went 1 for their next 7 in the half to end 3-13 (23%) from 3. Charlie Moore had 5 assists and zero turnovers. No one player shot particularly well.
DePaul’s plan was to throw it inside and overpower the Red Storm. This sounded great on paper, but it seemed like any time the Demons received the ball, the ball was being slapped or bumped, and the close shots ended up not being easy buckets. From inside the arc, DePaul was 9-17 (53.%) in the half. The Johnnies were 3-9 (33.3%) from 2, and 32% from 3, making 7 key 3 pointers. This illustrates 3 point math. DePaul had 18 points from 2 on 53% shooting, St. John’s had 21 points from 3 on 32% shooting. It’s crazy! 3 is greater than 2!
The 2nd Half
Mustapha Heron started the half with a 3 pointer and began warming up. With 17:18 left, Paul Reed hit 1 of 2 free-throws to put DePaul up for the last time in the game. A 3 and a half minute drought by DePaul signaled their doom. The Johnnies hit 2 layups and 2 three pointers to go up 9.
It took until 6:51 for DePaul to get back within 3. After a couple of near steals and immediate turning the ball back over, the wheels fell off. A dunk, a jumper, and a back breaking 3 pointer brought the score to 63-55, and the game never really felt in doubt again. Ultimately, DePaul lost by 13. DePaul managed to go 7-23 (30.4%) from 2 and 1-12 (8.33%) from 3 in the 2nd half. Unbelievable.
The three game gauntlet against Villanova, Butler, and Creighton, teams that had beaten DePaul a combined 40 times, is over. However, two of the long streaks are still alive. A diminished Blue Demon squad, missing starter Jaylen Butz, and sixth man, Devin Gage, succumbed to Creighton’s 3 point shooting in the second half.
The Blue Demons took an early lead on Nick Ongenda’s dunk. It was the only lead of the night for DePaul. At the ten minute mark of the 1st half, the Bluejays had taken a comfortable 8 point lead on Denzel Mahoney’s 3 point shot. The Demons stayed within striking distance keeping the deficit under 10 for the remainder of the half, and closed the half being down only 3.
This writer was ecstatic to only be down 4, because the Demons did not look right.
In my preview, I thought that Romeo Weems would draw Creighton sharpshooter, Mitch Ballock, but he ended up on point guard Marcus Zegarowski. In general, Weems disrupted him and kept him to having an average night with 9 points, 10 assists, and 3 turnovers.
Ballock did turn into an issue as the night went on going 5 for 11 from 3 point land, ending up with 19 points. It was the supporting cast of Creighton that did the damage. Five Bluejays scored in double figures. As a team, the Bluejays shot 40% from deep going 10-25.
If you watch the makes below, Ballock really had only 2 open shots. The guy is a shot maker.
Mitch Ballock’s made 3s against #DePaul last night. The Blue Demons only truly lost him twice. Dude can just shoot, and sometimes gets lucky. #Creightonpic.twitter.com/0KHu0inN5W
DePaul made three 3 pointers in the game, all by Jalen Coleman-Lands, who went 3-7 on the game, but that was it. The rest of the team went 0-9. As a team, the Demons shot 3-16 or 18.75%, which was a season low. Simple math explained the whole game in one tweet.
When I write my blog on this game all I need to say is #DePaul brought a knife to a gun fight, right? If you look at all stats to explain the game, it really came down to one team making 10 3-pointers and the other team making 3. 30-9 equals 21. #Creighton won by 15. #dpubb
If your opponent averaged 1.2 points per possession on possessions that ended in a 3-point shot, and your team averaged .56 points per possession in which you shot a 3-pointer and your opponent took 9 more 3 point shots? You are going to lose. The end.
It didn’t help that when Creighton wasn’t shooting 3’s they made 53.5% of their 2 point shots (1.07PPP), while DePaul made 51% (1.07PPP).
Always remember boys and girls, 3 is greater than 2, and when you have an elite group of shooters who take a ton of 3s, you are going to come out ahead a lot of the time.
Lead by Paul Reed’s 23 points and 9 rebounds, the DePaul Blue Demons dominated 5th ranked Butler, ending an eleven game losing streak to the Bulldogs. The game felt like DePaul was in control throughout, with the exception of a few minutes at the end of the first half, when Reed picked up his 2nd foul with 6:05 to go. Butler went on a 12-2 run to close the gap to 4 points with 2:17 left. For the first time in a long time, Win Probability favored the Bulldogs.
The Demons responded with their own 6-0 run to get back ahead by 10. With 16 seconds left in the half, Butler’s Jordan Tucker hit a 3 pointer to get the game back to 7. Tucker thought he had silenced the DePaul side of the crowd. Well guess what? Romeo Weems decided to ignite the crowd again. Weems ended the half with an exclamation point, 3 pointer to put the Demons back up by 10. DePaul never looked back.
To say that the result of the DePaul/Providence game was disappointing would be a severe understatement. The headline of the game is that the DePaul Blue Demons lost on a last second free-throw by a 38% shooter on a foul that is generally ignored.
That’s a pretty tough call with 1.1 seconds left in a tie game. Weems went to help which lead to an offensive rebound chance which Reed couldn’t get his hands on and falls to Watson. #DePaul#pcbb#dpubbpic.twitter.com/Qt6dLK5PcP
On a day that featured a first half in which Paul Reed went 0-9 and Jalen Coleman-Lands had zero points, the DePaul Blue Demons still found a way to defeat the Northwestern Wildcats. Charlie Moore and Jaylen Butz lead the Demons by scoring 28 of the 34 first half points to keep the team afloat. The Blue Demons shot 37%, while the Wildcats shot 55.6% to take a 4 point lead into the break with Freshman Boo Buie leading the way with 18 first half points. As was mentioned in the preview of this game, Boo Buie was the man to be worried about, the only reason that the Boys in Blue were still in it was that they had only 6 turnovers and had out-rebounded the ‘Cats by 5, mostly on the offensive end.
At the half, probability made it clear that DePaul could come back if they shot just a little better. It took just 1:12 for JCL to hit his first 3 pointer of the half, and 2:28 for Paul Reed to finally get on the board putting the Demons up by 1 in the process. DePaul held the lead until the 10:36 point of the 2nd half. The Wildcats took the lead to 6 points with 6:28 to go. When Paul Reed hit his only 3 point shot of the day, cutting the lead to 3, it ignited a 15-2 run which culminated in the sequence of the night by Jaylen Butz.
