TicketsDePaul Too Much For Cats
Contact: Brian Teter
2/12/2005
Eric Hicks scored 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting. |
ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Quemont Greer scored 25 points and Drake Diener added 22 to lead DePaul to an 85-66 victory over No. 20 Cincinnati on Saturday.
The Bearcats beat DePaul 83-54 in Cincinnati on Jan. 6, but the Blue Demons dominated almost every phase of the rematch to win their fourth straight game and eighth of nine.
The Blue Demons shot .468 for the game, the highest percentage by a UC opponent in 14 games. The Bearcats entered the game leading the nation in opposing shooting percentage and allowed DePaul to shoot just .303 in the first meeting.
The Bearcats, meanwhile, shot .510 from the floor, but made just 2-of-10 three-pointers and 14-of-27 free throws
Eric Hicks had 22 points for Cincinnati (18-6, 6-4), which has lost three straight conference games. He made 10-of-11 shots from the field, tied for the fourth-best shooting performance in school history. Jason Maxiell scored 18 points for the Bearcats, who were outrebounded 39-28.
DePaul was aggressive offensively right from the start, something the Blue Demons didn't do the first time they played Cincinnati.
Leading 57-45 with 14:33 left, DePaul (16-5, 8-2 Conference USA) went on a 16-4 run. Mejia started the spurt with a 3-pointer and had nine points in it. He capped the run with consecutive jumpers that extended the lead to 73-49 with 9:03 to play.
Diener hit his sixth 3 of the game to increase DePaul's lead to 79-54 with 6:22 left in the game.
Bob Huggins wasn't thrilled with Cincinnati's schedule, that had them playing at Charlotte on Saturday, then Xavier on Thursday in Cincinnati, while DePaul had almost a week to prepare after playing at Saint Louis on Sunday.
"It's not right, it's wrong, it's not fair to the kids," Huggins said.
But Huggins didn't want to take anything away from DePaul.
"They were absolutely terrific. They had an answer for everything we tried to do," Huggins said.
Greer was 8-of-13 from the field, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range. He played only 8 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, but scored 16 points in the second half.
LeVar Seals banked in a jump shot to give DePaul a 41-28 lead with 2:05 left in the first half and the Blue Demons were up 43-33 at halftime. DePaul was able to penetrate for easy baskets and Huggins tried to send a message by playing seldom-used freshman walk-on Ryan Patzwald late in the first half.