Charlie Moore had a season-high 24 points in his return from injury and DePaul snapped a five-game losing streak with an 88-83 win over St. John's in a Big East contest on Saturday night in Queens, N.Y.
Moore, the team's leading scorer, missed the last two games with a knee issue, but was a spark by shooting 8-of-13 for DePaul (4-10, 2-10 Big East), which overcame 24 turnovers to shoot a season-best 63 percent. The Blue Demons scored 58 points in the paint.
Big East scoring leader Julian Champagnie had 29 points for St. John's (14-9, 8-8), which had won seven of eight but shot 33.8 percent to see its NCAA Tournament hopes take a hit. Isaih Moore scored 16 for the Red Storm, who won 81-68 at DePaul on Jan. 27.
DePaul led by one point at halftime but extended that edge to 58-44 through a 15-2 run out of the break. It was highlighted by an 11-0 spurt that included two straight baskets from Moore and four points from Darious Hall (11 points).
St. John's missed 10 of its first 11 shots out of the break and went more than five minutes without a score before Champagnie ended the drought with a bucket at the 14:11 mark.
St. John's trailed by 15 with 8:20 in the game. However, Champagnie's 3-pointer concluded an 11-2 run that got the hosts within 68-62. Buckets by Moore and Ray Salnave (11 points) put DePaul up by 10 before Isaih Moore knocked down a 3-pointer and hit two free throws to make it 72-67.
The Red Storm got within four points with 40.9 seconds to play, but the Blue Demons hit their free throws to close things out.
The Blue Demons took advantage of Charlie Moore's return while they also shined inside, outscoring St. John's 30-6 in the paint over the first 20 minutes. Consecutive baskets from Moore and Oscar Lopez Jr. (10 points) put DePaul up 31-21 with 8:30 left in the first half.
However, the Red Storm used a 16-6 run to tie the game at 37-37. The hosts held a one-point lead on Isaih Moore's free throw with 32 seconds left, but David Jones' layup gave the Blue Demons, who went 18-of-30 from the field in the first half, a 41-40 lead at the break.
--Field Level Media
DePaul | St. John's | |
Charlie Moore 24 | Scoring | Julian Champagnie 29 |
Charlie Moore 8 | Assists | Posh Alexander 5 |
Pauly Paulicap 9 | Rebounds | Julian Champagnie 7 |
Charlie Moore 6 | Free Throws Made | Isaih Moore 7 |
David Jones 2 | Steals | Dylan Addae-Wusu 2 |
Pauly Paulicap 2 | Blocks | Vince Cole 1 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
DePaul | 88 | 63.0 | 4-8 | 16-22 | 14 | 36 | 8 | 6 | 24 |
St. John's | 83 | 33.8 | 12-33 | 23-25 | 16 | 29 | 3 | 11 | 14 |