DePaul University Athletics
DePaul Wins Exhibition Opener, 98-86
11/5/2000 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S BASKETBALL
In a shootout with the California All-Stars, the DePaul men's basketball won, 98-86, behind 27 points from Joe Tulley and 23 from Andre Brown. Bobby Simmons and Lance Williams added 17 points apiece while Imari Sawyer dished out 15 assists. Simmons also had a game-high 13 rebounds.
The Blue Demons jumped out to an early 21-7 lead before the Californina All-Stars went on a 28-13 run to take a 35-34 lead with 6:40 to play in the first half. From that point, the All-Stars built an eight-point margin at the end of the half with the score, 51-43. The first 20 minutes saw the All-Stars shoot a sizzling 64 percent from the field while hitting eight of 12 shots from behind the arc.
The All-Stars kept the lead in the second half until Bobby Simmons tied the game at 70-70 with a free throw at the 10:52 mark. From there, the lead changed hands three times until another Simmons free throw put the Blue Demons up for good at 76-75 with just under nine minutes left to play.
DePaul built the final 12-point margin with back-to-back dunks by Simmons and Brown followed by a pair of buckets by Lance Williams, who added nine boards to his 17 points. Tulley and Sawyer added two three-point baskets during the final 22-11 run.
"Our kids did a great job in the comeback," said DePaul head coach Pat Kennedy. "We had effort throughout the game, but also made some mistakes. We did a good job at the end of the game holding the lead. We pulled the ball out when we needed to and kept control of the basketball."
Tulley scored 20 of his 27 points in the second half and was 6-for-7 from three-point range in the game. Brown was 10-for-16 from the field with eight rebounds before fouling out with 2:03 left in the game. As a team, the Blue Demons shot 51 percent from the field while hitting 10-of-20 from behind the arc.
"We only played six guys tonight, so I knew I would have some opportunities," said Tulley. "With the zone that they were playing, I had a lot of looks and my job is to hit the open jumpers. The guys did a good job of finding me tonight."
The final exhibition game for DePaul will be Wednesday night when they host the One World All-Stars. Tip off is set for 8 p.m. following the women's exhibition game against the Houston Jaguars. The regular season opener is scheduled for November 17 when the Blue Demons host Lewis at the Allstate Arena.