DePaul lets guard down in loss to Red Storm

This was a game DePaul really needed, as much for the future as the present.

After getting beat up in the Big East the past four seasons, the Blue Demons maintained the status quo this year by dropping five straight conference games before rallying for a big win at Rutgers last Wednesday.

With a week off to get ready for a St. John’s team that started five freshmen and played without coach Steve Lavin, this was a chance for DePaul to finally start climbing upward.

Instead, it was yet another step back in an 87-81 loss to the Red Storm on Wednesday night at Allstate Arena.

“I thought we could get that one and get something going,” Demons coach Oliver Purnell said. “We didn’t.”

DePaul (11-10, 2-7 Big East) played inspired basketball for much of the first half and took a 31-19 lead on senior center Krys Faber’s layup with 4:41 to play.

After that, St. John’s (4-6, 10-12) closed the opening half with an 11-0 run and was right back in the game.

“We just got too comfortable,” sophomore forward Cleveland Melvin said after leading the Blue Demons with 22 points. “We let them come back and didn’t take care of the ball.”

DePaul likes pressing opposing teams all over the court, but the Red Storm had more success after employing the same strategy.

The Demons turned the ball over nine times in each half and they could have used senior guard Jeremiah Kelly, who was scratched right before the game with muscle spasms.

“I liked our approach in the first half,” Purnell said. “I liked the pace of the game. With 3-4 minutes to play, I thought we had some semblance of control, and then we didn’t handle the pressure very well.”

Regrouping at intermission, the Blue Demons rolled back out to a 43-34 edge in the second half before the Red Storm answered back yet again with suffocating defensive pressure and precision shooting from D’Angelo Harrison.

The freshman guard was 5-for-6 from 3-point range in the final 20 minutes, and Harrison led all scorers with 29 points.

After shooting 28 percent from the floor in the first half, St. John’s cranked it up to 73 percent after the break.

“In the second half, we didn’t do a good job of getting back in transition on defense,” sophomore guard Moses Morgan said. “We relaxed, and we didn’t find Harrison.”

The Red Storm was playing without Lavin, who is still recovering from prostate cancer surgery.

St. John’s took a 60-59 lead on Moe Harkless’ free throw with 8:58 to play and never trailed again.

DePaul was denied it’s first two-game winning streak in the Big East since the 2007-08 season.

“After winning at Rutgers, a win here would have been real good because it would have given us confidence,” Morgan said. “That was a game we should have won.”