DePaul erases some doubt with 86-89 win over Texas State

Despite losing to American on Wednesday and trailing by 11 in the first half to Texas State, DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright and his team managed to duck the negative mind-set cast over Allstate Arena.

Will Walker scored 20 of his 23 points in the second half to lead the Blue Demons (7-4) to an 86-69 win over Texas State (3-8) on Saturday.

Devin Hill and Mike Stovall had 19 points each, and Stovall also had 9 rebounds and 6 assists for DePaul.

"(The attendance was) 7,032 so probably 7,000 people had doubt," Wainwright said. "You either look at things as something bad is going to happen or you look at things as something good is going to happen.

"I thought we played with a lot of confidence. Maybe that's all we had to do - get one out of our system, attack a little more."

DePaul was able to regain the lead by closing the half with a 13-0 run to go ahead 34-32. Hill made a pair of 3-pointers during the span and Stovall had a basket with 32 seconds left.

"I thought that burst right before halftime was very important for us," Wainwright said.

Dylan Hale led Texas State with 22 points and John Rybak had 21 points.

The Blue Demons stretched their lead in the second half. Stovall had a putback to put them up 42-36, Jeremiah Kelly had a three-point play and freshman walk-on Nate Rogers made a pair of free throws to extend the Blue Demons lead to 51-38 with 13:04 left.

"Sometimes our guys get deflated," said Wainwright. "We mentally have to be a lot tougher."

In the first half, Texas State trailed 14-11 but scored the game's next 13 points. Rybak's 3-pointer capped the run that gave the Bobcats a 24-14 lead.

Stovall scored 12 in the first half and Hill had 10. Rybak made three of his four 3-point attempts in the half; for the game, he was 5-for-10 from behind the arc. Hale was 5-for-9 in the contest.