DePaul Drops Close Battle Against Butler

Wednesday, January 4

Indianapolis, Ind.

8:00 P.M. CT

DePaul University

7-9,1-4Big East

Butler

10-6,2-3Big East

DePaul

Butler

1/4/2023 11:25:00 PM | MEN'S BASKETBALL

Box Score Final Box Postgame Quotes Postgame Notes

Trio of double-digit scorers for the Blue Demons include season-high from Yor Anei

INDIANAPOLIS – In a tightly contested contest, the DePaul men's basketball team dropped a 78-70 road game to Butler, Wednesday evening. The Blue Demons were led by a trio of double-digit scorers in Umoja Gibson, Yor Anei and Da'Sean Nelson.

"I thought we did some good things during that game," said head coach Tony Stubblefield. "But anytime you give up 30 free throws its going to be hard to beat a team. We didn't get stops at critical times and they did. They are a good basketball team that can hurt you in a lot of different areas and they did that to us tonight. I thought our guys had a lot of fight, being down 13 with five minutes to go. We stayed in the game to give ourselves a chance.

Gibson finished with a team-best 16 points and game-best eight assists. Anei and Nelson followed with 14 a piece. Anei's performance was his best of the season with a 2022-23 high in scoring in addition to four rebounds and three blocks. Penn contributed a game-high seven rebounds.

HOW IT HAPPENED
DePaul took a 10-2 run early in the first half for an 11-8 lead before the game became a back-and-forth affair. A quick three-pointer by Gibson off an inbound from Jalen Terry gave DePaul a four-point, 17-13, lead. Butler scored seven unanswered for a 20-17 advantage, their first in over nine minutes. Neither team led by more than four through the first 17 minutes of the game until Butler took seven unanswered points and a 34-25 halftime lead.

The Blue Demons quickly cut the lead to five coming out of halftime, but Butler's lead grew to as much as 13 with under six minutes left. Philmon Gebrewhit gave DePaul a spark off the bench with a 9-0 run by himself that made it a four-point, 66-62, game. Butler closed out the game going 8-of-10 at the free throw line in the final two minutes to avoid letting DePaul back in the game.

OF NOTE

Terry tied a career-high two blocks, marking his first blocks of the 2022-23 season.
DePaul totaled 19 assists on 27 made field goals, the second most for DePaul in a BIG EAST contest in the last four seasons.
Javan Johnson recorded a season-best five assists.
DePaul tied its season-high eight blocks, which also marked its most against a conference opponent this season.

UP NEXT
The Blue Demons return home for a critical three-game home stretch, beginning with a contest against Villanova. The game is slated for an 8 p.m. tip on Tuesday, Jan. 10 and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Networks. Single-game tickets for all upcoming games can be purchased at DePaulBlueDemons.com/Tickets.