DePaul Basketball Defang Panthers: 3 Takeaways

DePaul basketball had an amazing performance against the Prairie View A&M Panthers, winning by a score of 92-59.

The Blue Demons improved from their previous performance against Southern Indiana.

Isaiah Rivera now has over 1,000 collegiate points in his career, while scoring 17 against the Panthers. Chris Riddle gets his first career points, ending the day with five.

Takeaway #1: Welcome to the Big East Chris Riddle

There has been some speculation earlier in the season as to how freshman forward Chris Riddle would fit into this new DePaul basketball roster, comprising almost entirely of transfers.

Against the Panthers, Riddle scored five points and three rebounds in 11 minutes played.

During the postgame press conference, head coach Chris Holtmann spoke highly about Riddle’s performance, while also reminding reporters, and by extension the fans, that there will be some periods of growing pains.

“It’s a lot for Chris,” Holtmann said. “It’s a lot to learn defensively. Offensively, it’s great to see him knock down that three. He’s a good shooter. I love seeing that. Love seeing that. You know, I love coaching Chris. I love what he can be in our program. But there’s going to be a lot of, you know, growth, growing pains that come with being a freshman. So he has to stay ready and stay coachable, and then, you know, be ready to prepare himself for each day, for kind of what’s coming next year.”

If Riddle can make his way through the lineup with consistent performances across the board, he will have a bright future in Chicago.

Takeaway #2: This team is athletic!

Throughout the game, there were many plays where the Blue Demons got out in transition and attacked the Panthers defense with athletic dunks. Including a few alley-oops as well.

The latter dunks in question were accomplished two times each by forwards JJ Traynor and NJ Benson.

In the case of Traynor, he scored 11 points and eight rebounds while shooting 4-6 (66.6%) from the field. Meanwhile for Benson, he had 15 points and nine rebounds, nearly getting a double-double for his performance. Both men improved from their previous game against Southern Indiana where they only scored three points and one point respectively.

Guards Isaiah Rivera and Layden Blocker also had a pair of dunks in their own right on the fast break. Blocker’s in particular was the first points scored by either side to start the game.

Blocker ended the game with 12 points, seven assists, six rebounds, one block, and one steal.

Isaiah Rivera now has over 1,000 collegiate points as well, congratulations on an amazing college career!

Takeaway #3: This team knows how to share the ball

Besides improving their free throw percentage tremendously compared to their first game, going 23-27 (85.1%), the Blue Demons also made on-ball defense difficult for Prairie View A&M.

DePaul had a combined 24 assists in tonight’s matchup, with Blocker as well as junior guard Connor Enright each having a team high of seven assists. That made history as they are now the first DePaul basketball duo to each have seven or more assists since Jeremiah Kelly and Brandon Young accomplished this feat all the way back in 2012.

When asked about the 24 total assists, Holtmann attributed that result to a byproduct of how the team played defensively while also stating that he expects DePaul basketball to be a high assist team.

“It was probably more of a byproduct of how they play defensively, how much they were in scramble mode, that I think it was more byproduct than that than anything,” Holtmann said during the postgame press conference. “Listen, we’re going to be a high assist team because our guys pass it and share it, and I think we’ve got a good passing team.”

That definitely made life a living nightmare on the defensive end for Prairie View A&M.

The Panthers constantly had to readjust their defenses, especially during the second half, making them unable to completely eliminate threats in the paint such as Benson, or perimeter threats such as Rivera, who shot 3-7 (42.8%) from beyond the arc.

Next game for DePaul (2-0): vs. Mercer (1-0) — Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. CST (9 p.m. EST)

Next game for Prairie View A&M (1-1): vs. Incarnate Word (0-1) — Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. CST (8 p.m. EST)