Blue Demons Getting Energized for Friday Night

Friday, January 28

Chicago, Ill.

6:00 P.M. CT

DePaul University

St. John's

Blue Demons Getting Energized for Friday Night

1/27/2022 10:04:00 PM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Ticket Info Live Video Live Stats De Paul Notes St. John's Notes

DePaul faces St. John's at Wintrust Arena before an FS1 national audience

CHICAGO – The Blue Demons and coach Doug Bruno let a precious opportunity to upset the greatest college basketball program in history slip right through their fingers.

Now, they have to be extra careful not to compound that setback.

Put it this way. The Blue Demons (16-5, 8-2 BIG EAST) are extremely motivated and focused every time they confront coach Geno Auriemma and the dynasty known as the Connecticut Huskies.

Their focus and energy were higher than it's ever been all season Wednesday night. They kept their anxiety and doubt in lockdown mode for the full 40 minutes and unlocked their true potential with a dominating 21-2 run to close out the second quarter.

The supremely confident UConn players who carry themselves with the poise of basketball royalty were absolutely stunned. Auriemma said his Huskies took a punch and then took a step back.

And even after Connecticut escaped with an 80-78 squeaker at Wintrust Arena, the fallout from the game could be felt all the way in Bristol, Conn.---home of ESPN.

ESPN writer Michelle Voepel included this in her postgame analysis:

"DePaul's Aneesah Morrow, who was No. 1 on ESPN's recent ranking of freshmen in women's basketball, had 30 points and 14 rebounds in the UConn loss.

"According to ESPN Stats & Information research, she is the fourth player in the last 20 seasons to get at least 30 points and 10 rebounds against UConn. The other three were all WNBA overall No. 1 picks: Tennessee's Candace Parker in 2007, Louisville's Angel McCoughtry in 2008 and Notre Dame's Jackie Young in 2018.
"Morrow now has three consecutive games with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds. No player had done that since Middle Tennessee's Alysha Clark, in 2010. Clark is now with the Washington Mystics.
"It was also Morrow's 15th double-double this season, tying her with Missouri junior Aijha Blackwell for the most in Division I. Morrow's 13 consecutive double-doubles is the longest active streak in Division I."

Amping up your energy and competitive juices to DEF-CON 2 for a second game in a row is a longshot at best. Nobody gets you fired up quite Geno & his Huskies.

So Sonya Morris, Lexi Held, Deja Church, Darrione Rogers, Kierra Collier and Morrow have to be mindful of flattening out Friday night against St. John's. The 6 p.m. game at Wintrust Arena will be nationally televised by FS1.

There's no doubt Bruno began preaching that to his charges in the postgame locker room after the tough loss.

But to really be sure the message gets across, it's incumbent on team leaders Morris, Held and Church to forcefully express that in language only young people understand.

To hear it from your coach is one thing.

To hear it from a highly respected and well-liked teammate is something else entirely.

Morrow, who leads the nation in double-doubles, rebounds and offensive rebounds per game doesn't seem to know any other way to play the game than all-out, all the time. That's why the 6-foot, 1-inch power forward is also second in the country in field goals and third in total points.

Freshmen can be like that, playing with a sort of blissful ignorance that blocks out distractions and prevents you from thinking too much.

It will be fearless performances by Morris, Held and Church that inspire their teammates to grab hold of the torch and follow their lead.

Morris (18 points a game) comes into the Friday third in the country in field goals and No. 14 in points. Held 13.8 points and 5.7 assists) is No. 6 in assists for a team that leads the nation in that category. Church (13.2 points) is No. 12 in NCAA Division I in free throws for a team that is No. 1 in scoring offense. Roger averages 10.5 points a game.

St. John's (6-12, 2-6) plays its own version of "DePaulball" and loves to get up and down the court with a talented backcourt crew headed by Leilani Correa (19.4 points a game) and Kadaja Bailey (14.6 points).

Matching up with Morrow (20.8 points, 12.6 rebounds per game) in the Land Down Under are 6-3 Rayven Peeples who is a whisker away from averaging double- double (9.9 points, 10.5 rebounds) and 6-4 Danielle Cosgrove.