Wednesday, February 10
Queens, N.Y.
5:30 P.M. CT
DePaul University
11-4,8-2Big East
81
at
73
St. John's
5-11,2-9Big East
1
2
3
4
F
DePaul
25
16
23
17
81
St. John's (NY)
14
19
23
17
73
It's a Close Call for No. 22/22 DePaul Wednesday Night
2/10/2021 7:39:00 PM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Blue Demons survive late St. John's rush in 81-73 BIG EAST victory
QUEENS, N.Y. – Winning on the road is never easy---even if you are DePaul and ranked No. 22 in the country by both major polls.
Chalk up another 'W' in the away column for the Blue Demons after their hard-fought 81-73 victory over St. John's Wednesday night in Carnesecca Arena.
The performance in front of a national TV audience on FS2 improved their road record to 5-1 with the only setback coming at No. 2/1 Connecticut. Overall, DePaul is now 11-4 and 8-2 in the BIG EAST Conference.
Sonya Morris led five Blue Demons in double figures with 21 points and Deja Church added 18. Lexi Held finished with 14 points, a career-high eight assists and six steals while Jorie Allen had 11 points. Dee Bekelja contributed 10 points and eight assists. Darrione Rogers came through with a career-high 12 rebounds.
St, John's opened the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run and DePaul's lead was 66-64 with 8:16 left when Blue Demon coach Doug Bruno called timeout. He already had Morris on the bench saddled with four fouls. Jorie Allen also had four.
After Allen fouled out, Bruno went to a zone defense with his five-guard lineup. The two teams exchanged baskets at a furious pace with the Red Storm's Leilani Correa (33 points) hitting shot after shot.
It was a one-point game in crunch time when Morris responded with five points in a row and Bekelja added a basket. Nothing dramatized the difficulty of road wins more than the close call in Queens.
Looking to protect an eight-point halftime lead, DePaul took off on a 13-4 run in the middle of the third quarter and it was 57-40 at the media timeout. Church again figured prominently in the surge while Held had a three-pointer and a couple of steals.
Playing with three fouls, Morris knocked down a shot from distance causing St. John's coach Joe Tartamella to call for a break in play which became the media timeout.
Held hit a three to establish a 20-point lead at 62-42, but St. John's came storming back and closed out the quarter on a 14-2 run. It was 64-56 heading into the final 10 minutes.
DePaul came racing out of the starting gate at top speed. Just three minutes after the opening tip, it was 14-2 and St. John's called timeout. Morris had seven points, Allen five and Church on an aggressive drive to the hoop. Allen was particularly effective on the high post give-and-go.
Bekelja scored back-to-back in putting the visiting team ahead 25-12 before St. John's scored to make it 25-14 after one quarter. The Blue Demons connected on 10-of-18 shots in the first 10 minutes. Morris already had nine points.
Bekelja, Church and Held kept the momentum going for DePaul in the second quarter. After back-to-back baskets by Church who has been playing with a growing confidence the last several games, DePaul led 33-22 at the media timeout. Morris and Held had to be careful as both had two fouls.
The Red Storm closed to 37-31 in the latter stages of the second quarter. Allen scored twice in a row in giving her team a 41-33 advantage at halftime. Allen and Morris had nine points at the break while Church had eight.
The Blue Demons are back in action Monday with a BIG EAST showdown against Seton Hall at Wintrust Arena that will be televised on FS1.
Postgame Notes
Chalk up another 'W' in the away column for the Blue Demons after their hard-fought 81-73 victory over St. John's Wednesday night in Carnesecca Arena.
The performance in front of a national TV audience on FS2 improved their road record to 5-1 with the only setback coming at No. 2/1 Connecticut. Overall, DePaul is now 11-4 and 8-2 in the BIG EAST Conference.
Sonya Morris led five Blue Demons in double figures with 21 points and Deja Church added 18. Lexi Held finished with 14 points, a career-high eight assists and six steals while Jorie Allen had 11 points. Dee Bekelja contributed 10 points and eight assists. Darrione Rogers came through with a career-high 12 rebounds.
St, John's opened the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run and DePaul's lead was 66-64 with 8:16 left when Blue Demon coach Doug Bruno called timeout. He already had Morris on the bench saddled with four fouls. Jorie Allen also had four.
After Allen fouled out, Bruno went to a zone defense with his five-guard lineup. The two teams exchanged baskets at a furious pace with the Red Storm's Leilani Correa (33 points) hitting shot after shot.
It was a one-point game in crunch time when Morris responded with five points in a row and Bekelja added a basket. Nothing dramatized the difficulty of road wins more than the close call in Queens.
Looking to protect an eight-point halftime lead, DePaul took off on a 13-4 run in the middle of the third quarter and it was 57-40 at the media timeout. Church again figured prominently in the surge while Held had a three-pointer and a couple of steals.
Playing with three fouls, Morris knocked down a shot from distance causing St. John's coach Joe Tartamella to call for a break in play which became the media timeout.
Held hit a three to establish a 20-point lead at 62-42, but St. John's came storming back and closed out the quarter on a 14-2 run. It was 64-56 heading into the final 10 minutes.
DePaul came racing out of the starting gate at top speed. Just three minutes after the opening tip, it was 14-2 and St. John's called timeout. Morris had seven points, Allen five and Church on an aggressive drive to the hoop. Allen was particularly effective on the high post give-and-go.
Bekelja scored back-to-back in putting the visiting team ahead 25-12 before St. John's scored to make it 25-14 after one quarter. The Blue Demons connected on 10-of-18 shots in the first 10 minutes. Morris already had nine points.
Bekelja, Church and Held kept the momentum going for DePaul in the second quarter. After back-to-back baskets by Church who has been playing with a growing confidence the last several games, DePaul led 33-22 at the media timeout. Morris and Held had to be careful as both had two fouls.
The Red Storm closed to 37-31 in the latter stages of the second quarter. Allen scored twice in a row in giving her team a 41-33 advantage at halftime. Allen and Morris had nine points at the break while Church had eight.
The Blue Demons are back in action Monday with a BIG EAST showdown against Seton Hall at Wintrust Arena that will be televised on FS1.
Postgame Notes
- DePaul has won five of its last six games with the lone setback coming to No. 2/1 Connecticut.
- The Blue Demons have won their last 11 games against St. John's with a series record of 23-5.
- This was DePaul's fourth consecutive road victory.
- Held had a career high with eight assists and tied a career high with six steals. Bekelja tied a career high with eight assists.
- Darrione Rogers had a career-high 12 rebounds.
- Sonya Morris leads the team having scored 20-or-more points nine times in 15 games. Her 26 points on Jan. 16 at Georgetown tied her season and team high---scoring 26 Dec. 13 against Loyola.
- Lexi Held is a double-figure scorer in every game except one.
- DePaul checked in at No. 22 in the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today/Coaches poll.
- Bruno's full-court pressure tactics and his players' ball-hawking aggression have forced 20 or more turnovers in every game except five this season including 27 against No. 10/10 Texas A&M and 23 against both No. 2/2 Louisville and No. 9/9 Kentucky. Georgetown's 33 miscues on Jan. 16 were a season high. St. John's had 17 on Wednesday. The Blue Demons are No. 6 in the nation in forcing turnovers averaging more than 23 a game.
- After Deja Church reached the 1,000-point mark in her career on Jan. 21 at Butler, Lexi Held is next up for the milestone. The junior guard is seven points away from accomplishing the feat in just three seasons while classmate Sonya Morris is 38 shy.
Team Stats
DePaul
SJU
FG%
.493
.508
3FG%
.286
.154
FT%
.692
.778
RB
39
30
TO
18
17
STL
10
9
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
21
FGM
8
3FGM
3
FTM
2
Pts
18
FGM
8
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Players Mentioned
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