Layden Blocker produced a career-high 21 points with eight rebounds as DePaul cruised to a 98-52 nonconference victory over visiting Northern Illinois on Saturday afternoon in Chicago.
Connor Enright, playing with a mask after breaking his nose in practice Friday, piled up 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists for DePaul (6-0), which has one more game on its season-opening homestand. Jacob Meyer hit for 14 points and CJ Gunn added 11 as the Blue Demons clicked on 15-of-29 3-point attempts.
Quentin Jones led Northern Illinois (2-4) with 16 points, Tsvet Sotirov scored all 11 of his points after halftime and Dominic Gooden added 10 off the bench. The Huskies hit just 25.4 percent from the field and 20.7 percent on 3-pointers.
DePaul wasted little time avenging last season’s 10-point home loss to Northern Illinois, even though both teams’ rosters are dramatically different.
Blocker, who missed Tuesday’s win over Eastern Illinois with a thigh injury, returned to the starting lineup and drilled two 3-pointers in the opening four minutes to steer DePaul to a 11-2 lead. He added a dunk and a coast-to-coast layup to push the Blue Demons’ margin to 17-4 with 12 minutes left in the half.
Gooden interrupted the Blue Demons’ flow with a pair of free throws at the 10:15 mark, but DePaul kept pouring it on. Gunn and Meyer hit 3-pointers, N.J. Benson converted a layup and JJ Traynor threw down a dunk to give DePaul a 30-6 advantage with 7:28 to go in the first half.
At that juncture, Northern Illinois had hit just 2 of 16 shots from the field and committed four turnovers as head coach Rashon Burno, who ran the point for DePaul from 1998-2002, tried 10 players to find a productive combination.
DePaul pumped the lead all the way to 51-15 by halftime as Blocker stacked up 16 points and five rebounds. The Blue Demons shot 58 percent, outrebounded the Huskies 30-11 and held an opponent below 20 points in the first half for the first time since Dec. 7, 2011, against intracity rival Loyola.
DePaul kept burying 3-pointers, though, and finished with its biggest margin of victory since a 109-61 win over Chicago State on Dec. 17, 2016.
