#25 DePaul Locks Down Georgetown

CHICAGO- The Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling might have filed tonight’s episode at McGrath Arena between DePaul and Georgetown under “Where There’s a Will, There’s A Way.”

In a first half that was statistically bizarre, it was the Blue Demons’ Sam Quigley that helped her team find its will, as the Blue Demons pushed their win streak to five by defeating the Hoyas 57-51 Tuesday night.

The first 20 minutes saw DePaul (18-5, 6-3) outrebounded 30-15, including 18-1 offensively, score zero second chance points, shoot no free throws, have its leading scorer and third leading scorer shoot a combined 0-6 from the field, and still lead 32-23.

It was 12 points from Natasha Williams and eight points from China Threatt that helped the Demons survive the huge first half statistical discrepancy.

The Demons’ woes continued into the second half as a jumper by Meredith Cox pulled the Hoyas to within 38-36 with 11:53 remaining.

“When you come out of the locker room with a nine point lead and you are in a position to put a team away, you must put them away,” said DePaul head coach Doug Bruno. “That is something that we did not do tonight and we almost paid a very costly price during the (second half).”

A jumper by leading scorer Deirdre Naughton, her only points of the game, pushed the Demons’ lead to 50-47 with 5:24 left to play. Georgetown countered with 3:15 left on a jumper by Jaleesa Butler to regain the lead at 51-50.

“There are some themes we preach all the time to our players called “we wills”, Bruno said. “(One of the last ones) is that we will finish all close games.”

Quigley would, and she did, scoring the Demons’ last seven points.

A steal by Threatt with 1:24 remaining led to a Quigley three-pointer at 1:04 with the shot clock winding down, giving DePaul a 53-51 lead.

“I just felt like I was open, so I shot it. I was not thinking about how big of a shot it was, just that the shot clock was doing down and I shot it.”

Two free throws by Quigley with 35 seconds left and a breakaway layup by her with five seconds remaining cemented the win.

Williams, still playing on a sore left knee, finished with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. She now has 499 career rebounds. She also had four of DePaul’s eight blocked shots. Quigley added 15 points, five assists, and four of the team’s 12 steals.

“(Georgetown) is a good team and we did not take care of business coming into the second half,” Williams said. “It was gut check time in the last three minutes of the game, and we hunkered down and made some plays. You have to have that will and focus towards the end if you want to win.”

Naughton, still recovering from an illness, was substituted for liberally and had five assists in her 25 minutes of play.

Georgetown (13-9, 3-6) was led by Butler’s 17 points.

DePaul now leads the series 5-1.

Next up for DePaul is a 1:00 p.m. televised game on ESPNU this Sunday at #19 Notre Dame.