DePaul University Athletics
DePaul Drills Southern Miss
2/28/2004 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S BASKETBALL
Box Score
ROSEMONT, Ill. – DePaul had some fun on Saturday.
The Blue Demons erupted for the biggest Conference USA win in the Dave Leitao era with an 80-51 swamping of Southern Miss on Saturday at the Allstate Arena.
The win moved the Blue Demons to 17-8 overall and 10-4 in Conference USA. Southern Miss fell to 12-13 and 5-9. DePaul now sits one-game out of first place in C-USA with two contests to play.
Andre Brown tied his career high with 24 points while Delonte Holland added 18, Quemont Greer had 12 and Sammy Mejia posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists (with no turnovers). Southern Miss was led by Charles Gaines’ 24 points and 12 rebounds.
The game was tight throughout the first half and the teams were tied at 18 with 8:01 remaining and then the Blue Demons took command. A 13-4 run closed out the half and the Blue Demons took a 31-22 advantage into intermission.
The second half was all DePaul. The Blue Demons roared out of the locker room and built the lead to 58-30 with 11:47 left. DePaul continued to push the ball and led by as much as 32 at 77-45 with 1:37 to play when Blue Demon head coach Dave Leitao emptied the bench and used all three of his walk-ons.
DePaul hosts 12th-ranked Cincinnati in the home finale on Thursday at the Allstate Arena. The 8 p.m. contest will be televised by ESPN2.
Notes
Today was Andre Brown’s 100th game in a DePaul uniform… Brown also became only the eighth player in DePaul history to record 1,000 points and 800 rebounds in a career. … Brown tied his career-high with 24 points… the Blue Demons have also tied the school record (with the 1998-99 team) for most conference wins in a season by picking up their 10th league win… Drake Diener is now tied with Quentin Richardson for seventh on DePaul’s career three point field goals made list with 117… DePaul’s 24 assists was a season-high… Chris Exilus tied his season high with six points and played a season high twelve minutes… today was the first game this season that every DePaul player who dressed, saw playing time.
Quotes
Head Coach Dave Leitao
“I am very happy for our guys and I told them after the game this is the biggest conference win we have had in the two years I have been here.”
“At halftime I told the team the 22 points Southern Mississippi scored were a comfortable 22 points. They were getting easy shots and we had to stop giving them easy looks. We picked up the defense in the second half, got steals, and the defense was great.”
“With the Saint Louis game I didn’t beat the loss into them. I mentioned it to them (at halftime) and I use things in the past for reference points so they know where to go. As I started mentioning it they knew about it, and they knew it couldn’t happen to them again.”
“I give credit to Andre Brown because he didn’t have a great offensive game the other night and our staff did a great job to show their strengths and weaknesses in order to prepare them for today.”
“Sammy (Mejia) leads it and I try to explain to him that his body language becomes infectious when he starts pushing the ball. In the 2nd half he got everyone energized, he got the players passing, and he lead the charge and that shows a great level of maturity.”
(On getting into the NCAA Tournament) “Everyone in America has an opinion and nobody sits on that committee. I cant figure out their minds and I shouldn’t . All I can control is how we can play and prepare us and that’s all I can do.”
Andre Brown
“I think after we lost to Saint Louis we knew we had to learn from our mistakes, come out against Louisville and show people we still have the chemistry going.”
“We felt a lot better today hitting shots, looking for players, and we had good chemistry going today.”
“It’s good when we have guys like Sammy (Mejia) and Drake (Diener) looking for guys for the open shots.”
It has sunk in (the end of his career) and as a team overall these games are crucial for the rest of our season. We didn’t want to let up too easy and we proved that tonight.”
(On getting into the NCAA Tournament) “This is a goal of ours and we don’t want to look ahead of ourselves.”
“I look at each year as an improvement. The team worked hard, we have a long way to go but we are in the position where we want to be and it feels good.”
“Defense plays a factor and last year we did not play strong defensively, and this season we take pride in playing defense and I think it helps us offensively as well.”
“We are looking forward to Cincinnati and it’s a big game. We have to scout them, they are going to scout us, and this is a game everyone wants to see and we will be prepared.”
Delonte Holland
“We wanted to get a big confidence win and after Louisville we wanted to send a message defensively and offensively.”
“We have two games left and we are looking forward to Cincinnati (on Thursday) and we have to get ready for them.”
“We wanted to send out a message and get a good win.”
“Andre (Brown) gets so much attention by getting double teamed, and he is able to get the ball in post and kick it back out to the open guy.”
