DePaul Opens BIG EAST Play at St. John's

QUEENS, N.Y. – DePaul men's basketball officially turns its attention to conference play as the Blue Demons face #22/20 St. John's on the road, Tuesday, Dec. 16. The game is slated for a 6 p.m. CT tip on Peacock with John Fanta and Tarik Turner on the call. Zach Zaidman and Dave Corzine will have the radio call on Sirius XM and DePaul Blue Demons App.

LAST TIME OUT
DePaul (8-3) closed out non-conference action with a road win at Wichita State, 61-58. The Blue Demons came back from a double-digit deficit with a 21-3 run to hold a five-point halftime lead. DePaul is 6-0 on the season when holding opponents under 65 points and ranks top-three in the BIG EAST, allowing 67.8 points per game.

CJ Gunn was a tremendous lift off the bench for DePaul with 18 points in the game, including a first half where he went 6-of-7 from the floor with four three-pointers. Additionally, NJ Benson added 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Benson is shooting 72.6 percent from the floor on the season,

THE SERIES
St. John's leads the all-time series, 34-22, with wins in the last seven meetings between the two programs. Chris Holtmann is 5-3 all-time as a head coach against St. John's.

SCOUTING ST. JOHN'S
Led by head coach Rick Pitino in his third season, St. John's (6-3) enters BIG EAST play fresh off back-to-back wins against Ole Miss and Iona. The Johnnies are 14-0 over the last three seasons in games held at Carnesecca Arena and enter Tuesday's game ranked in the top-25 for the 17^th-consecutive week.

The Red Storm is led this season by Bryce Hopkins and Zuby Ejiofor with 14.9 and 14.4 points, respectively. Ejiofor, the 2025 BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year, also leads the Johnnies with 7.2 rebounds per game while Dillion Mitchell and Hopkins additionally average five or more a game. As a team, St. John's is among the nation's best in fastbreak points with 21.11 per game and free throw attempts with 29.3.

UP NEXT
DePaul returns home to host top five opponent, UConn, Sunday, Dec. 21. The game is slated for a 3:30 p.m. tip from Wintrust Arena on FS1.

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Players Mentioned

NJ Benson

CJ Gunn

DePaul University Athletics