St. John's can't keep up with DePaul
Head coach Mike Anderson of St. John's reacts in the second half against Creighton at Carnesecca Arena on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Javon Freeman-Liberty scored a career high 39 points and David Jones had 24 points and 10 rebounds as host DePaul held the lead for nearly the final 34 minutes on the way to a 99-94 victory over St. John’s on Sunday.
DePaul (14-14, 5-13 Big East) shot 55.9%.
Julian Champagnie had 26 points and six rebounds for the Red Storm (15-13, 7-10), Aaron Wheeler had 20 points and seven rebounds and Posh Alexander had 18 points and eight rebounds.
They were only eight lead changes in the game, all of them in the first six minutes. The Red Storm’s biggest lead was one point, the final time at 16-15 on a Wheeler free throw with 14:05 left in the first half. Champagnie tied the game at 18 with a layup a minute later, then the Blue Demons slowly built a 47-41 lead at halftime.
DePaul pushed the lead to 10 a few times in the second half, the last one on Nick Ogenda’s dunk to make it 81-71 with 5:47 left in the game.
The Storm then chipped away and got their deficit down to two points at 88-86 on a traditional three-point play by Champagnie with 1:38 to go.
At that point, Freeman-Liberty, the Big East’s leading scorer, was in the midst of scoring nine straight DePaul points. He and his teammates hit 11 of 13 free throws in the final 1:23 to keep St. John’s at bay.
"We missed a lot of lay-ups, we missed free-throws at critical times," DePaul coach Mike Anderson said. "We had the opportunity to sway the game our way. Then again, let’s give them [DePaul] credit, they made plays, made big shots and made their free-throws."
