The Blue Demons ended a four-game losing streak with a surprising win over the Musketeers.
The DePaul Blue Demons scored a major upset win on Saturday afternoon.
The Blue Demons caught the now 16-6 Xavier Musketeers napping as they edged them, 69-65. The win is just DePaul’s second in Big East play this season and snaps a four-game losing streak that started with Xavier, followed by Creighton, Villanova, and UConn in that descending order. It also is the first time since the previous Xavier matchup in which they scored more than 60 points, after putting up 47, 43, and 50 in their previous three losses.
DePaul engineered this win but it certainly was not easy. They were down five points with 13:43 to go in the second half. This was the largest lad Xavier had all day, but they let it evaporate from them. DePaul would race out in front and despite being outscored 37-35 in the second half, they came away with a four-point win.
An issue that loomed large for the Musketeers was their lack of offense. They had just 27 first-half points and only seven of them came in the first 10 minutes. Xavier trailed by seven entering the break and merely outscored DePaul by four, so their lack of productivity bit them in the end.
Four DePaul players got into double figures, with Courvoisier McCauley scoring 21 points off the bench. Jalen Terry, Brandon Johnson, and David Jones scored 13, 12, and 10. Meanwhile, four Xavier players also go into double figures. Paul Scruggs cashed in 21 points, matching McCauley’s output on the other end. Jack Nunge, Colby Jones, and Zach Freemantle joined in with 12, 11, and 10.
The Blue Demons won despite losing the turnover battle, 12-9. They won the rebounding margin by a thin three boards. They also won despite being outshot from 3, going 22.7 percent from deep compared to Xavier’s 35.3 percent mark.
DePaul hopes to make it two in a row against lowly Georgetown, who’s yet to win a Big East game this season. Xavier, on the other hand, draws Seton Hall on Wednesday night in New Jersey.