DePaul Tops Second In-State Rival In A Week
12/9/2000 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
After downing Southern Illinois, 74-57, on Wednesday, the DePaul women made it a clean sweep for the week against state schools with a 81-58 victory over Northern Illinois Saturday night at the DePaul Athletic Center.
"We had a very good week," said head coach Doug Bruno. "You don't really have must win games early in the year, but I felt that where we were at entering the week we needed these games."
Candis Blankson paced the Blue Demons with her third straight game scoring 16 points. The senior guard was 6-of-10 from the field including 4-6 from three-point range.
Lenae Williams had 15 points and Jamie Lewis added 10, while all but one player recorded a point as the team extended a 34-27 halftime margin to the 23 point final mark. Lewis and Williams also led DePaul with six rebounds each.
"We needed to play a focused basketball game and I thought we did," said Bruno. "Northern is a tough team to get good looks against and we got some very good looks tonight. I was pleased with the good balanced production we had and the fact we were able to apply consistent defensive pressure all evening."
Northern was led by Kristan Knake's 13 points and game-high eight rebounds. Jennifer Youngblood matched Knake with eight boards.
DePaul improves to 3-3 and NIU falls to 2-6. The Blue Demons continue battling schools from the state of Illinois on Tuesday when they host Northwestern on Tuesday at 6 p.m. DePaul will make their first appearance at the United Center next Saturday when they take on Illinois.