Held and Grays lift DePaul Past St. John's 70-62

Sunday, February 17

New York, N.Y.

12:00 P.M.CT

DePaul University

St. John's

DePaul

St. John's (NY)

Held and Grays lift DePaul Past St. John's 70-62

2/17/2019 2:10:00 PM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

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Held scores a team-high16 points and Grays add 13 Sunday at Madison Square Garden

NEW YORK – For all the Blue Demons on Sunday, their first time playing in the iconic Madison Square Garden was an experience they won't soon forget.

Behind more of freshman Lexi Held's clutch fourth quarter scoring and some solid play in the final minutes, DePaul topped St. John's 70-62 Sunday in a BIG EAST showdown.

Held led the Blue Demons (19-7, 10-4) with 16 points---eight in the fourth quarter. Mart'e Grays had 13 points and Kelly Campbell contributed nine points, six rebounds and five assists. Sonya Morris and Chante Stonewall pitched in with eight points apiece.

The Red Storm went on a 6-0 burst early in the fourth quarter to take a 52-51 lead. Held cut that short with a three-pointer and the visiting team led 54-52 at the fourth quarter media timeout.

Back-to-back Stonewall scores made it 58-52. St. John's closed to 58-56 when Held hit another one of her big fourth-quarter threes to make it 61-56. Her three-point play with less than two minutes to go upped the lead to 64-58.

St. John's (13-13, 6-9) outscored DePaul 10-4 at the outset of the third quarter to move in front 32-30 at the 8:07 mark. Unable to get their offense untracked, the Blue Demons fell behind 36-30 at the media timeout.

Ashton Millender found her shooting stroke and scored five points down the stretch of the period, and along with a pair of Sonya Morris free throws, the Blue Demons led 49-46 heading into the final 10 minutes.

A Tanita Allen three-pointer followed by Held's driving layup put DePaul in front 9-2 at the first quarter media timeout.

It turned into a 13-2 run after Held knocked down a pair of free throws. St. John's had eight turnovers in the first five minutes. Chante Stonewall's jumper gave DePaul a 16-11 lead after one quarter.

St. John's came back to trail 19-17 at the second quarter media timeout. Curteeona Brelove was hurting the Blue Demons inside with eight points and six rebounds by the middle of the quarter.

Campbell hit a pair of foul shots and came right back with a shot-clock beating three-pointer to deliver DePaul a 26-22 lead at halftime.

The Blue Demons had some difficulty making shots over the first 20 minutes. They connected on 30 percent of their attempts from the floor including 2-of-11 from distance. What helped alleviate that was forcing St. John's into 12 turnovers.

DePaul is back in action Friday when they go against Xavier in a BIG EAST game at Wintrust Arena that will be shown on the BIG EAST Digital Network.

Postgame Notes

Millender (1,275 points) is No. 22 on the all-time scoring list, passing Sam Quigley (1,273).
Grays (1,261) points is right behind Quigley and Millender at No. 24.
With 264 career three-pointers, Millender is No. 3 all-time. Brittany Hrynko is No. 2 at 281 and all-time leader Lenae Williams finished with 303.
Millender (716) is No. 2 all-time in career three-point attempts. Williams set the career mark with 924.
Campbell (426) is No. 8 all-time in assists with Allie Quigley No. 7 at 427.
A vocal contingent of Blue Demon fans composed of family members and friends of Campbell, who is from Wall, N.J., and family and friends of coach Doug Bruno including his sons David and Brendan Bruno, made their presence felt on Sunday. Also in the DePaul crowd was former Blue Demon soccer player Ana Greik.