Delaware State vs. DePaul final score: Blue Demons record first win in new arena

After Saturday’s pomp and circumstance ushered in the new era of DePaul basketball by opening Wintrust Arena with a loss to Notre Dame, the Blue Demons got their first victory in their new building, picking up a (###) win over Delaware State Monday night.

While there were still a few things for DePaul to work on, it was all-around a far better performance than Saturday afternoon.

The Blue Demons never trailed and led by as many 21 points. Tre’Darius McCallum led the way with 17 points. Max Strus bounced back from his horrendous shooting effort on Saturday to add 15 points before fouling out late in the second half.

Perhaps the two best performances of the night, though, came from Devin Gage and Jaylen Butz. Gage excelled at the point, with 10 points and eight assists, along with three steals. Butz pulled down 13 rebounds in his second career game. The future for DePaul certainly has some bright spots.

Three-point shooting is still a bit of an issue for the Blue Demons, as they went 5-19 from long range, bringing their season total to an icy 10-41 on the year. It didn’t matter tonight, because they were able to get it going in the paint (48 of their 81 points came inside), which they were unable to do on Saturday.

Delaware State was led by Kobe Gantz’s 21 points and 10 rebounds. It’s wild that we’re at the point where there are an influx of basketball players named Kobe. How far off are we from a new crop of guys named LeBron?

DePaul improves to 1-1 and heads to Champaign for their Gavitt Games matchup with the Illinois Fighting Illini on Friday evening.