Crash! DePaul hits the wall
You know how football broadcasts feature those virtual lines on the field to show where teams must travel to earn a first down?
To let the national television audience know what was on the horizon Thursday night, ESPN needed to provide a virtual wall to display when youthful DePaul tends to hit the bricks and shut it down.
No. 9 Notre Dame rolled to an 83-58 Big East victory at Allstate Arena as the Irish outscored the Demons 15-4 to close the first half and 15-5 to start the second.
Ben Hansbrough scored 24 points to pace Notre Dame (18-4, 7-3), while DePaul got just 4 points from freshman Cleveland Melvin — 16.3 below his Big East average.
“Just being physical with him,” said DePaul coach Oliver Purnell. “Not letting him get to his sweet spot. Then, if he got there, just kind of banging him. That’s the way guys have been playing him the last 2-3 games.”
Melvin wasn’t the only one who underachieved for the game’s defining stretch, which seems to come at the same time every time for the Blue Demons (6-15, 0-9).
“Inexplicably, for I think five games in a row,” Purnell said, “with five minutes to go in the half, we have really had the wheels come off mentally and physically with our play.”
After playing just as physically and as tenaciously as Notre Dame during the opening 15 minutes — it was 22-20 with eight minutes left in the first half — DePaul managed just 1 field goal in the last 9:16 before halftime.
“When we get frustrated in a game, it just makes us look bad as a team,” said freshman point guard Brendan Young, who shot 5 of 14 from the field and committed 5 of DePaul’s 18 turnovers.
“We just come down and don’t run an offense and shoot up crazy shots. Yeah, it’s tough, but it’s going to get better.”
It can’t get much worse for the Blue Demons, who leave at noon Friday for a game at No. 15 Louisville.
DePaul looks to snap its 22-game losing streak against Big East foes and the Demons’ 25-game skid against Top 25 teams.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame bid Chicago a fond adieu after spending more than 48 hours holed up in a hotel to avoid the worst of the blizzard.
“There’s a lot of TV watching, that’s for sure,” said Notre Dame junior Scott Martin, who contributed 15 points and 7 rebounds.
“I threw a few naps in.”
Irish coach Mike Brey broke the monotony by making his guys tape ankles and go hard for an hour Thursday.
That ferocity carried over to the game as the first 15 minutes were particularly frisky. Purnell spent extra time hollering at the officials for what he deemed an extra elbow or two from Hansbrough and friends.
“I thought our energy was really good,” said Brey, whose team hadn’t played since the Jan. 24 win at Pittsburgh. “We were excited to compete. We handled their pressure well when they tried to rev us up.”