DePaul Cruises to Wainwright's 200th Victory
11/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S BASKETBALL
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LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) -- Wilson Chandler scored 23 points and Sammy Mejia added 19 to lead DePaul, which pulled away in the second half for a 93-74 victory over Chaminade on Tuesday in the consolation bracket of the EA Sports Maui Invitational.
The Blue Demons (2-3) will play Purdue in the fifth-place game Wednesday. The Boilermakers (3-1) beat
Stewart Kussler had 21 points for Chaminade, the Division II host of the eight-team tournament, while Zack Whiting had 13 points and 13 assists, his second straight double-double.
DePaul lost 87-81 to No. 20 Kentucky in the opening round, while the Silverswords were beaten 88-63 by No. 5 UCLA.
Unlike their opening-round loss when UCLA jumped to a 17-2 lead, the Silverswords stayed close in this game into the second half, trailing by one point with 15:46 to play.
Chaminade (0-2) hit three 3-pointers in a 13-4 run to open the second half and was within 50-47. The Silverswords made their first six shots of the second half and got within 52-51 4:14 in on a layup by Kussler.
DePaul then scored 14 straight points as Chaminade came up empty on nine straight possessions, missing five shots and committing four turnovers.
Mejia hit two 3s in the run and capped it with a three-point play that made it 66-51 with 10:27 left.
The Blue Demons went on to lead by as many as 22, the last time at 85-63 with 4:05 to go on a 3 by Draelon Burns.
The Silverswords dropped to 4-62 in their 23 years of hosting the tournament. Two of the wins have been against teams from the Big East, DePaul's conference. They beat
The win was the 200th for Jerry Wainwright, who is in his 13th season as a head coach. He was at North Carolina-Wilmington for eight years,