DePaul University Athletics
Holland Helps DePaul Past Northwestern
11/25/2003 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S BASKETBALL
ROSEMONT, Ill. --Â Delonte Holland poured in a career-high 27 points and Andre Brown posted his second consecutive double-double as DePaul (2-0) beat Northwestern 65-53 on Tuesday at the Allstate Arena.
Holland led all scorers with 27 points while grabbing eight rebounds, dishing out four assists and recording two steals. He won the Waldo Fisher-Frank McGrath Award as the game's Most Valuable Player.
Brown posted 12 points and 12 rebounds while freshman point guard Sammy Mejia handed out a game-high eight assists with no turnovers. DePaul also out-rebounded the Wildcats (1-2) 40-23.
Holland scored 12 of DePaul's first 15 points as the Blue Demons roared out to a 33-16 lead in the first half. Northwestern was able to cut the gap and DePaul had a 10-point halftime advantage at 35-25.
The second half was all DePaul as the Blue Demons saw the lead grow to as much as 20 on two occasions, the last with 2:34 remaining in the game.
DePaul will travel to East Lansing, Mich. over the weekend to play in the Spartan Classic, a reunion of the 1979 Final Four. The Blue Demons will meet Indiana State at 3 p.m. (CST) on Saturday.
Notes
Holland became the first player (out of 20 winners) to earn the Waldo Fisher-Frank McGrath Award by unanimous vote... Drake Diener passed David Booth (1988-92) into 14th place on DePaul's all-time 3pt. field goal list with 64... Brown's double-double was the 19th of his career, he also had 19 points and 13 rebounds in the season opener vs. Loyola-Chicago... DePaul is now 4-0 under Dave Leitao in November.
Quotes:
"First I want to say I am proud of our guys. For having only a couple days of practice to play against a difficult system to play that are unnatural to play.; They have three-point shooters; create fast cuts and back doors. I wanted to prepare the team to be ready to face 50-60 back doors and create lay ups."
"I thought we defended well and rebounded well."
"Aside from his scoring, Delonte also did well defensively."
"We did lose focus towards the end of each half and yes, we talked about it in timeouts to move the ball and share ball. We wanted to move Northwestern around to create easy shots. We were too weak in the last four minutes of first half and the last four minutes of the second half. We have to be consistent to play 40 minutes of basketball."
"It is early and it is difficult to say and it depends on focus, we have goals in mind, bumps in the road, over the long haul we have potential to be good, we have rebounding capabilities, we have shooters, use the bench more, and shoot better around the perimeter, and to maintain focus and use the energy day to day."