SportsDirect Inc.
Recap: DePaul 69, Northern Illinois 64
DePaul 69, Northern Illinois 64: Brandon Young scored 15 points and Jamee Crockett had a season-high 14 as the Blue Demons held off the visiting Huskies.
DePaul (8-3) went 10 for 10 from the free-throw line in the final 2:47 to secure their first six-game winning streak since the 2003-04 season. Young scored four points from the line in the closing minutes, Worrel Clahar scored four of his eight and Cleveland Melvin scored two of his 12.
Abdel Nader, in his second game back for Northern Illinois (2-7) after sitting out the first seven for violating teams rules, scored 20 points and Akeem Springs had 11, including a pair of 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds that kept the score close.
Nader hit a 3-pointer to give the Huskies a 56-54 lead with 4:20 left, but Crockett answered with a 3 on the other end to put DePaul back up by a point with 4:05 left. DePaul would make just one other field goal in the final minutes, a dunk by Melvin that pushed the lead to 63-58 with 1:08 left.
DePaul went nine minutes without a field goal before Young made two in the final 17 seconds of the first half to give the Blue Demons a two-point lead.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Durrell McDonald sank a 3-pointer with 15:09 remaining in the game, extending DePaul’s streak of at least one 3-pointer to 590 games. … Freshmen accounted for 17 of the 22 turnovers by Northern Illinois. …Northern Illinois junior guard Antone Christian returned after missing the last six games with a foot injury. The team’s third returning scorer from last season finished with no points in four minutes
