DePaul University
Cal State Northridge
Blue Demons Stumble Against Cal State Northridge
11/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S BASKETBALL
Nov. 26, 2010
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Lenny Daniel had a career-high 31 points and 10 rebounds to lead Cal State Northridge to an 88-66 victory over DePaul in the 76 Classic on Friday.
Daniel made 11 of 15 shots and 9 of 11 free throws for the Matadors (2-3). Rashaun McLemore added a career-best 21 points and Dathan Lyles had nine points and seven assists. The Matadors raced to a 45-21 halftime lead.
Brandon Young scored 14 points for the Blue Demons (1-3). Krys Faber added 11 points and seven rebounds and Mike Stovall had 10 points.
Northridge shot 60.7 percent for the game - 76 percent in the first half - and outscored DePaul inside 48-36.
Postgame Quotes - Cal State Northridge 88, DePaul 66
DePaul Coach Oliver Purnell
"I'm disappointed all the way around the way we played. We didn't really do much of anything. Shot selection in the first half was bad, and we turned it over to boot. Defensively, we rely on our energy and our pressure defense to create some offense, and that wasn't there either. I thought that Northridge came out with more energy than we did, and took it to us all night long. We really didn't generate much of anything. I told our guys to just erase it from our memory, because we have a short turnaround in a couple of days. I'm glad we have a day off tomorrow. We have to forget how poorly we played today. Hopefully, we'll draw on how well we played yesterday (vs. Oklahoma State). We still are struggling in shot selection and rebounding."
On this season as a rebuilding project - "This will be the fifth program I'll try to turn around. I like challenges. I guess I'm motivated when people say I can't do something. I don't go into situations blindly. I look at the raw materials that a place has. I look at it as a job that could be a great job. It might not be now, but I look at location, league, airport, recruiting areas, and a whole lot of other things. If I see the key components are there or could be there, then I start to get excited about that. DePaul has a great tradition, and it's not like it hasn't been done before. There are a lot of reasons why this program could be an outstanding one again."
On their defense against Cal State Northridge - "No energy. We have a high-risk defense. If our traps aren't tight, not on the ball, not chasing guys from behind and most of all, not rebounding, then they're going to be some point-blank, wide-open shots. When you don't have that energy, the defense could be porous."
About being drained from yesterday's game - "I hope that wasn't going to be the case, but certainly as we got into the ball game, midway through the first half, the energy wasn't there. We kind of went through our roster to try to generate things. And Jimmy Drew goes down with stitches. One more guy down, and we're coming into this tournament one guy down already, we don't have our third guard. The previous game did take it out of us. I hoped that our guys would mentally push down that barrier, but obviously we didn't."
On this season as a foundation - "You always look at building a foundation. You want to build a program that lasts, whether you're here or not. It's about a system of doing things. It's about getting wins, and getting some wins against outstanding people. We're going to have many opportunities to do that, but we got to play better than that obviously."
Cal State Northridge Head Coach Bobby Braswell
"Welcome to my world! Again, it's such a young team, not sure which team is going to show up. But I like this one tonight. No doubt about it, I enjoyed this group of guys. We played our first 40-minute basketball game this year and I'm very proud of the effort, the energy, and the game plan. The guys executed the game plan perfectly, so for us, this was obviously a big victory for us."
"We had a nice conversation last night in our team meeting. There were some challenges laid out there and these guys stepped up and showed what they're capable of doing. The challenge was simply to play a full 40-minute game this year. And if we could ever put a 40-minute game together then I think some good things will happen with this group. And tonight, we relied heavily on our veteran guys, we relied heavily on our senior leadership, they played the bulk of the minutes. I was little bit concerned about the press, what DePaul might do with the press and how our young guys might handle it. So we went with an older group and they took care of the basketball and we did some good things."
On DePaul's Coach Purnell - "Coach Purnell talked a little before the game about the process, what it's going to take for him and for me with this young group of guys we have and he shared the same feelings about what team is going to show up and what the teams are going to do. He's obviously a fantastic coach. He's been successful. You saw the problems they caused for Oklahoma State last night and we were very aware of what they could do and I just thought our guys handled the pressure and the situation very maturely and very, very well. And I'm very, very pleased with that."
