Gilchrist dominates DePaul again

If only South Florida forward Augustus Gilchrist could play every game at Allstate Arena.

Facing DePaul on the road seems to bring out the best in the 6-foot-10 Gilchrist. After scoring a career-high 32 points against the Blue Demons last February, Gilchrist wore down DePaul’s big men Sunday, scoring a season-high 22 points in the Bulls’ 75-59 Big East victory.

Gilchrist, who had been averaging 9.2 points per Big East game, made 7 of 8 shots and went 8 for 10 from the free throw line. He added five rebounds and a steal.

“I just try to stay near the rim and be aggressive,” Gilchrist said. “My teammates did a good job finding me early and giving me little easy baskets, so it’s a great credit to them. Good team win for us.”

The Bulls’ inside game combined with their guards attacking the basket steadily broke down DePaul’s defense. South Florida outrebounded DePaul 40-29 while scoring 44 points in the paint, including 14 second-chance points.

“We haven’t done a great job with Gilchrist really utilizing his talent, and I’ll take the blame for that,” Bulls coach Stan Heath said.

“At the same time, I talked to (Gilchrist) about settling for jump shots. Today he was much more aggressive, attacking the basket, drawing fouls.”

The Bulls (12-8, 5-2), who have won five of their last six overall and seven in a row against DePaul, also got 19 points from Jawanza Poland.

Cleveland Melvin’s 17 points led the Blue Demons (10-9, 1-6), losers of five consecutive games. Jamee Crockett added 15.

DePaul never led by more than three points and trailed the entire second half. The Blue Demons’ 23-22 lead at the 6:17 mark of the first half was short-lived, as the Bulls answered on their next possession when Anthony Collins completed a three-point play.

South Florida opened the game the game shooting 1 for 6 behind the arc but went 2 for 3 in the final 6 minutes as part of a 12-4 run to forge a 37-29 halftime lead. For the 15th straight game, South Florida held its opponent to 30 or fewer first-half points.

“We went back and forth in two zone defenses and just took the wind out of their sails a little bit and stopped them from being so aggressive,” Heath said.

Crockett hit a basket and a 3-pointer in the first 1:02 of the second half to pull the Blue Demons within 38-34. After an exchange of turnovers and a DePaul miss on a 3-pointer, the Bulls scored on consecutive possessions to again extend their lead to eight.

The Blue Demons wouldn’t back down, however. Behind a 6-0 run, DePaul cut the deficit to 42-40 with 15:27 left. But South Florida started pushing the tempo from that point on, outscoring DePaul 33-19 the rest of the way by mixing zone and man-to-man defenses. Six Bulls scored at least six points.

“We lost a lot of games last year,” Heath said. “We know how hard it is to win on the road. We want to win, period, but road wins are special.”

Poor shooting and an inability to cash in on South Florida’s turnovers cost the Blue Demons against one of the Big East’s toughest defenses. The Bulls are first in scoring defense in league games at 57.8 and afforded DePaul few good looks.

The Blue Demons shot only 31.4 percent in the second half, including 2 for 12 from 3-point range, thwarting their comeback efforts. They finished 22 for 65 from the field (33.8 percent).

“I thought our inability to make shots was probably our major downfall,” DePaul coach Oliver Purnell said. “I thought our guys came out battling in the first half on the defensive end of the floor.”