CHICAGO – DePaul men’s basketball played its lone exhibition in preparation for the 2023-24 season, Thursday evening. The Blue Demons took away a 74-63 victory over a North Park team, fresh off a NCAA Division III Tournament Sweet Sixteen run last season.
“I’m glad our guys stuck with it for 40 minutes, obviously we did some good things out there and we did some bad things out there that we got to clean up,” said head coach Tony Stubblefield. “I was proud of our guys and some of the things they did tonight. We did a better job in the second half of cutting down on turnovers…I thought we did a better job of making plays for one another.”
DePaul had a balanced scoring attack with a total of four players in double-digits, led by Elijah Fisher with 22 points off the bench. Fisher went 8-for-9 from the floor and added five free throws. Da’Sean Nelson and Jeremiah Oden followed with 16 and 15 points, respectively. Jaden Henley rounded out the double-digit scoring with 11 points and tied with Oden for a team-high six rebounds.
Chico Carter Jr. shot 2-of-3 from three-point range and tallied a team-best six assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
After a 31-26 halftime lead, DePaul looked refreshed in the second half shooting 64 percent from the field. The Blue Demons opened the period 7-for-8 from the field.
The second half started out strong as DePaul opened the period 7-for-8 from the field. Nelson took advantage of a North Park turnover with six minutes left, extending DePaul’s lead to 17 on a layup.
DePaul remained resilient as Fisher, Henley and Oden engineered a 10-2 run for the Blue Demons to go back up 14, 70-56. The Vikings took advantage of a short DePaul bench after Nelson fouled out, going on a run to close the game to six with 3:17 left to play. The trio of Fisher, Henley and Oden continued making plays to close out the game down the stretch.
UP NEXT
The Blue Demons officially open the 2023-24 season as they host Purdue Fort Wayne at Wintrust Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 7. The game is slated to begin at 8 p.m. with coverage on FS2. Tickets for the opener can be purchased at DePaulBlueDemons.com/Tickets.
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