DePaul basketball: Blue Demons dominate Central Michigan in 99-66 win

The DePaul Blue Demons are 2-0 for the second time in the last three seasons.

Javon Freeman-Liberty scored 22 points and helped guide the Blue Demons to a 99-66 victory over Central Michigan. The Chips were taken down handily in this one, as they only held a lead as large as two points at one point in the second half.

DePaul took control of this game in the second half after a back-and-forth affair in the first. They scored 58 points to Central Michigan’s 28 in the back half of the game. They were deft from the field in this time period, shooting 63.3/50.0/80.0 against the Chips. The Blue Demons finished the game shooting 55.6/41.2/78.6, all pretty strong marks all things considered.

14 of Freeman-Liberty’s 22 points came in the second half. He was not the only one to get into double figures though. Four others joined him, as this was a collaborative effort on Saturday night in Chicago. Brandon Johnson (20), David Jones (16), Philmon Gebrewhit (15), and Courvoisier McCauley (11) all had prodigious nights on the court. Nick Ongenda and Yor Anei added eight and seven points, coming just shy of double figures on the night.

This well-rounded showing against CMU was certainly a delight to see for DePaul. The Chips might be one of the poorer MAC teams this year, but beatdowns like this for the Blue Demons don’t come around too often. So whatever got into them? For their sake, let’s hope it continues on.

DePaul will hit the floor on Thursday again for the 2021 Gavitt Tip-Off Games. The Blue Demons have a home game against Geo Baker and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Thursday night.