No. 18/20 DePaul Rolls On in Preseason WNIT

Monday, November 11

McGrath-Phillips Arena

7:00 P.M. CT

DePaul University

2-0,0-0Big East

Drexel

2-1,0-0CAA

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Drexel	12	21	15	9	57
DePaul	30	13	19	19	81

11/11/2019 10:28:00 PM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Box Score Box Score

Blue Demons advance to semifinals after Monday night's 81-57 win over Drexel

CHICAGO – If the trend continued, No. 18/20 DePaul was going to be tested Monday night at McGrath-Phillips Arena.

All the Preseason WNIT second-round games had been close affairs heading into the Blue Demons' tipoff with Drexel.

Well so much for trends as the Blue Demons started and finished strong in an 81-57 victory that sends them into the tournament semifinals against No. 7/6 Oregon State Thursday with a 9 p.m. (Chicago Time) tipoff..

Once again, Chante Stonewall led the winning team with 19 points, five rebounds and four steals while also doing yeoman's work down low and defending Drexel's best player Bailey Greenberg. Sonya Morris had a big game with 17 points, five rebounds and three steals. Lexi Held contributed 15 points and Kelly Campbell again stuff the stat sheet with nine points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Campbell and Dee Bekelja hit three-pointers early in the fourth quarter to help DePaul move in front 68-50. That was followed by a tough Deja Church rebound in traffic and a court-length pass that caught Stonewall perfectly in stride for a layup and 20-point lead.

Another Stonewall score and two connections by Morris at the charity stripe increased the lead to 74-50 midway through the fourth quarter. Campbell's three made it 79-52 when coach Doug Bruno went to his reserves. Stonewall limited Greenberg to 17 points after the Dragons star had scored 62 points in her first two games.

After Drexel (2-1) had closed to within 10 at halftime, the Blue Demons (2-0) opened the third quarter with a 10-2 burst behind Stonewall, Held and Campbell in re-establishing a healthy lead at 53-35. That was approaching their largest margin of the game, 21 points early in the second quarter.

Held began heating up with a pair of three-pointers, the second of which combined with Deja Church on a 6-0 spurt and a 59-40 lead at the media timeout.

A pair of Stonewall foul shots made it 62-43 before Drexel scored the final five points of the quarter. Coach Doug Bruno's team went into the fourth quarter with a 62-48 advantage.

It was the Sonya Morris show the first 10 minutes of the game as the emerging sophomore took over the game right from the opening tip.

Draining six of her first seven shots and culminating with a shake-and-bake move followed by a teardrop layup gave the talented guard 13 points in just eight minutes of action.

Along with classmate Lexi Held's seven points and two each from Maya Stovall and Jolene Daninger, DePaul's prized sophomore class accounted for 24 first-quarter points as the home team shot out to a commanding 30-12 advantage going into the second quarter.

Morris made seven of her first eight shots before finally coming back down to earth. The Blue Demons' high-octane attack misfired for a stretch midway through the second quarter enabling Drexel to go on an 8-0 run and cut its deficit to 35-22.

The Dragons continued to draw closer and closed to 43-33 by halftime. They were having success driving and scoring in the paint.

Morris led all scorers with 15 points at the break while Held had nine and Stonewall seven.

Postgame Notes

Stonewall has 42 points, 17 rebounds and nine steals in her first two games.
DePaul forced 23 Dragon turnovers and scored 32 points off turnovers.
Morris had career highs in field goals and attempts (7-of-15) and steals.
The Blue Demons need 10 more wins to reach 900 in program history.
Kelly Campbell needs 129 points to reach the 1,000-point career milestone.
Campbell tied Sam Quigley for No. 5 in career assists with 484. Jessica January is fourth with 554.
Campbell is No. 10 all-time in career rebounds with 726 and Felicia Chester is ninth with 751.
Bruno needs four more victories to become only the third active women's basketball coach to reach the 700-win plateau at one school, joining Connecticut's Geno Auriemma and Villanova's Harry Perretta.
Chante Stonewall is No. 35 all-time in career scoring with 1,089 points with No. 34 Katherine Harry (1,100) and No. 33 Felicia Chester (1,129) in her sights.