For one afternoon, at least, reality matched the plan. On Saturday at Allstate Arena, DePaul played effective defense and chased down loose balls, diligently crashed the boards and shot with some success.
There were no disastrous meltdowns, which have plagued the Blue Demons this season. There was no lack of aggressiveness. And there was no Imari Sawyer, the starting point guard remaining indefinitely suspended for academic reasons.
“He gets reviewed at the end of every day,” coach Pat Kennedy said.
For one afternoon, at least, the Blue Demons didn’t miss him, walking away with a 62-51 victory over East Carolina. Before they exited the court, senior point guard Rashon Burno grabbed the public address announcer’s microphone and said, “We want to thank everybody who came out to support us. We know who our true fans are and we appreciate it.”
Burno’s spontaneous message was a response to about 50 disgruntled fans who staged a walkout during the first half in protest of the state of the DePaul program.
“I was speaking for the coaching staff and the team,” Burno said. “We just wanted to let those true fans who supported us and supported me for four years know we appreciated it.
“People do things for their own individual reasons. But we truly appreciate those who came out for the whole year and those who will continue to come out.”
The Blue Demons opened on the attack. They ran away to a 15-2 lead, held the Pirates to 4-for-20 shooting over the first 14:45 and were up by 19 when a whistle blew with 4 minutes 3 seconds remaining in the half.
That was the time for the restless rebels to make their move, but only about 50 people in the announced crowd of 4,651 left their seats.
“I was playing in the game. I didn’t notice it,” Burno said.
Kennedy said he didn’t either. “Those who support DePaul support DePaul,” he said. “Those who don’t, frankly, that’s their problem. It didn’t faze me. It didn’t faze us.”
East Carolina didn’t much faze DePaul either. The Demons won the season’s first meeting in Greenville, N.C., last month, their only conference victory before Saturday. They managed an encore performance behind surprisingly steady defense.
“DePaul just handled us around the basket,” Pirates coach Bill Herrion said. “In both games our big guys weren’t even a factor.”
Kennedy said the improved defense was simply a matter of hard work, of “hunkering down on defense.”
Said Burno: “We wanted to hold them to 25 points in the first half. We reached that goal.”
The Blue Demons (9-13, 2-8 Conference USA) led 36-23 at the half, and East Carolina (8-15, 2-9) was an abysmal 31 percent (9-for-29) from the field. The Pirates would cut the deficit to eight with 90 seconds remaining, but DePaul hunkered down again, hitting 6-of-8 free throws and forcing the Pirates into a turnover and 1-for-5 shooting in the time remaining.
Andre Brown finished with 20 points and nine rebounds. Lance Williams had eight points and 11 rebounds, and Burno made Sawyer irrelevant by scoring seven points with eight assists, five steals and only two turnovers, plus a well-timed statement to the audience.
“We’ve been going through a tough period, but we’ve got to stay together,” he said. “That’s what a family does.”
