DePaul University Athletics
Men's Basketball Erupts, Rolls Past Syracuse
3/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S BASKETBALL
Box Score
Post Game Audio
ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) - Karron Clarke scored a career-high 27 points and Sammy Mejia added 21 as DePaul rolled to a 108-69 victory over Syracuse on Thursday night at the Allstate Arena.
Syracuse (19-10, 7-8 Big East), which desperately needed a win to improve their NCAA Tournament chances, trailed by 14 at the half.
DePaul went on to outscore Syracuse 16-8 to open the second half. Marcus Heard had a dunk to give the Blue Demons a 62-42 lead. And minutes later, on an inbounds play, Wilson Chandler hit Clarke on a fly pattern and Clarke finished with a dunk to give DePaul a 69-46 lead.
Jabari Currie extended the DePaul lead on another breakaway dunk to give the Blue Demons a 77-49 lead with 11:23 left. Draelon Burns hit back-to-back three's and Heard had a basket to increase the lead to 95-54 with under six minutes left.
DePaul (12-14, 5-10 Big East) still needs a win against Notre Dame on Saturday and some help to qualify for the BIG EAST Tournament. Only 12 of the top 16 teams in the conference qualify for the tournament.
Thursday night was the first time DePaul scored 100 or more points in a game since November 25, 2001 in a victory against Youngstown State.
Chandler scored 16 points, had seven rebounds and three blocked shots for DePaul and Burns added 17 points. Heard finished with 15 points.
DePaul shot 24-for-32 in the second half and Currie finished the game with a career-best 11 assists.
DePaul hit an Allstate Arena record with 16 three's. It was the most three’s Syracuse allowed in school history. West Virginia made 15 3's against Syracuse on Jan. 16, 1997.
Gerry McNamara had 21 points for Syracuse.
The Blue Demons travel to South Bend on Saturday to face Notre Dame. The 4 p.m. (EST) contest will be televised by ESPN and broadcast on WSCR (670 AM) in Chicago.
