DePaul Faces Incarnate Word Wednesday at Wintrust Arena

CHICAGO - DePaul enters its final week of the non-conference portion of the regular-season schedule with two games in four days at Wintrust Arena. The Blue Demons host Incarnate Word on Wednesday night before Boston College travels to Chicago for a Saturday afternoon game. Start time on Wednesday between the Blue Demons and Cardinals at Wintrust Arena is set for 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday's game will be televised on FS2 with Brandon Gaudin (play-by-play) and Stephen Howard (analyst) handling the television duties. The game can also be seen online at foxsportsgo.com or the FOX Sports Go app. DePaul's radio tandem of Zach Zaidman (play-by-play) and Jeff Blanzy (analyst) can be heard on WIND 560 AM as well as online on DePaul All-Access at www.depaulbluedemons.com. Live stats can also be found at www.depaulbluedemons.com while in-game scoring updates can be followed on Twitter at @DePaulHoops.

Incarnate Word is 5-7 overall this season and enters Wednesday's contest following a 63-57 loss at UIC on Monday. DePaul head coach Dave Leitao is in his seventh season at DePaul and his fourth since returning to the program after leading the Blue Demons three postseasons in three years from 2002-05. Overall, the 2018-19 campaign is Leitao's 13th as a head coach at the collegiate level. Incarnate Word is led by Carson Cunningham who is in his first season leading the Cardinals and sixth season overall as a head coach at the collegiate level.

WWWWWWWintrust Arena: DePaul's seven straight wins at home to open the season is the best home start since the 2006-07 team won its first seven outings. The 2006-07 squad won every home non-conference game before a 59-49 loss against Pittsburgh on Jan. 10, 2007 to begin the BIG EAST home schedule. The last team to start 8-0 at home was the 1999-00 team.

Demon Doings: Notes following DePaul's 90-70 win against UIC on Dec. 14:

The 90-70 win gives DePaul a 7-0 start to the season at Wintrust Arena… it matches the best start since the 2006-07 squad won its first seven games.
DePaul scored at least 90 points in back-to-back games for the first time since the 2006-07 season... that season saw a 90-62 win against California on Dec. 23 and a 97-67 victory against Northwestern State on Dec. 29.
The Blue Demons are 19-6 since the start of the 2010-11 season against local opponents (Chicago State, UIC, Loyola-Chicago, Northern Illinois and Northwestern)... since the start of the 2000-01 season the record against locals is 33-12.
The win improves DePaul's record to 7-2 and marks the Blue Demons best overall start to the season since the 2002-03 team started with a 7-2 record.
DePaul recorded back-to-back halves of at least 50 points with 52 in tonight's first half following 55 in the second half on Wednesday night against Chicago State.
Max Strus recorded career highs with 34 points, 13 rebounds and posted his third double-double at DePaul.
Devin Gage's six steals were a career-high while he finished with 15 points, six steals, five rebounds and five assists.
Paul Reed scored a career-high 13 points to go with seven rebounds.
Eli Cain scored 10 points to move into a tie for 23rd with Jim Lamkin (1951-55, 1,306 pts.) on the all-time scoring list.
With eight threes, Strus tied the school record for the most threes in a game… he matches Draelon Burns on Nov. 28, 2008 vs. Texas A&M Corpus Christi... Strus moved from 20th to 17th on the program's all-time three-point field goal list… Strus has 110 three's at DePaul.
DePaul holds a 7-2 advantage in the series… tonight's game snapped a three-game winning streak by the visiting team in the series.

It Could Happen: A win would give DePaul an 8-0 start to the season at home... it would be the best home start since the 1999-00 squad won its first eight home games... a win would also give DePaul's it best overall start to the season since the 2002-03 team started with an 8-2 record... with a three-pointer, DePaul extends its streak to 780 games with a three-pointer.

Trendy: Over the last two games, DePaul is averaging 97.0 points per game while shooting .536 (67-125) from the field overall and .426 (23-54) from three-point range... Jaylen Butz is shooting .636 (21-33) from the field over the last seven games... Eli Cain is second in the BIG EAST with 5.3 assists per game and a 3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio... Jalen Coleman-Lands is averaging 12.0 points and 3.5 rebounds over the last six games... Devin Gage is averaging 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists over the last four games... Max Strus is averaging 30.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 6.5 three-pointers per game over the last two games.

It's Been A While: Long-standing notables through nine games of the 2018-19 season:

The 22-point win over Bethune-Cookman and the 28-point margin of victory against Morgan State marked two occurrences that haven't happened since the start of the 1999-2000 season for the Blue Demons.
DePaul opened the season with back-to-back wins by at least 20 points for the first time since season-opening wins over Howard (105-61) and American-Puerto Rico (114-69) to start the 1999-00 season. The game against American-Puerto Rico was DePaul's opener in the San Juan Shootout.
The combined margin of victory of 50 points in the first two games this season is the most in back-to-back games since the 1999-00 team combined for a margin of 89 points in the games against Howard and American-Puerto Rico.
Jaylen Butz grabbed 15 rebounds against Penn State for the most boards in a game since Cleveland Melvin's 15 rebounds at St. John's on Feb. 20, 2012.
Max Strus was named BIG EAST Player of the Week marking the first time since December 2007 that a DePaul player earned the league's weekly honor.
Paul Reed's six blocked shots against Cleveland State are the most since six blocks by Cleveland Melvin on Jan. 14, 2014 against St. John's.
The Blue Demons held Florida A&M to 50 points in the 65-50 win on Dec. 3 marking the first time holding an opponent to 50 points or less since an 84-50 win over Milwaukee on Dec. 9, 2012.
DePaul's wins over Chicago State (104-70) and UIC (90-70) were the first back-to-back games with 90 points scored in each game since the 2006-07 season. That season saw a 90-62 win against California on Dec. 23 and a 97-67 victory against Northwestern State on Dec. 29.

Twice as Nice: DePaul senior guard Max Strus was recognized by the conference office on Nov. 19 and Dec. 17 with BIG EAST Player of the Week honors. He joins Sammy Mejia as the only DePaul player to win the league's weekly honor twice. Mejia earned the recognition on Dec. 4 and Jan. 2 during the 2006-07 season.

Strus led DePaul to a pair of wins over Morgan State and Penn State while averaging 23.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists. He shot .457 (16-35) overall and .421 (8-19) from three-point range while going 6-for-8 from the free throw line. The senior is the first BIG EAST Player of the Week for DePaul since Draelon Burns in December 2007.

He also led DePaul to a pair of wins against Chicago State and UIC while averaging 30.5 points and 10.5 rebounds with a combined 13 three-pointers in the two games. Strus shot .529 (18-34) overall and .542 (13-24) from three-point range while going 12-for-16 from the free throw line.

The Opponent - Incarnate Word Cardinals: Incarnate Word is 5-7 overall this season... the Cardinals have dropped two straight and five of the last six games... Christian Peevy leads the team with 14.0 points per game... Morgan Taylor adds 12.3 points per game with a team-high 37 assists... head coach Carson Cunningham is in his first season at UIW... DePaul head coach Dave Leitao is facing the Cardinals for the first time.

The Series: Wednesday is the first meeting between the programs.

Up Next: Dec. 22 vs. Boston College at Wintrust Arena

The game will be televised nationally on FS1 and can be heard in Chicago on WSCR (670 AM).
Boston College is 8-2 overall this season. The Eagles have been off since a 77-67 win over Fairfield on Dec. 16.
The two sides have split two all-time meetings with the last game as an 82-75 win for the Eagles on March 14, 1982 in Dallas at the NCAA Tournament.
Boston College went 19-16 overall and 7-11 in the ACC last season.
First game in a two-year scheduling agreement between the programs with DePaul making a visit to Chestnut Hill in 2019-20 season.

DePaul Faces Incarnate Word Wednesday at Wintrust Arena

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jaylen Butz

Eli Cain

Jalen Coleman-Lands

Devin Gage

Paul Reed

Max Strus

DePaul University Athletics

DePaul Faces Incarnate Word Wednesday at Wintrust Arena

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jaylen Butz

Eli Cain

Jalen Coleman-Lands

Devin Gage

Paul Reed

Max Strus

Related Videos