DePaul Basketball Silences Mercer Bears: 3 Takeaways

DePaul basketball defeated the Mercer Bears, 95-64, going 3-0 on Chris Holtmann’s birthday.

For the first time since the 2022-2023 season, the DePaul basketball has won three games in a row, as well as starting the season 3-0.

On head coach Chris Holtmann’s 53rd birthday, his team giftwraps him a dominating victory over the Mercer Bears, who came to Chicago from a 125-54 victory over the Virginia-Lynchburg Dragons. The team went on multiple scoring runs, even holding the Bears to 22 points in the first half.

The Blue Demons now have multiple wins scoring nearly 100 points, the first of which was a 92-59 win over the Prairie View A&M Panthers.

Forward N.J. Benson led the team in scoring with 15 points while also recording 4 rebounds and a block in the win. Former Indiana Hoosier guard C.J. Gunn, who debuted for DePaul tonight after missing the first two games with a knee injury, scored 13 points and grabbed 2 rebounds and 2 steals in the matchup.

Forward J.J. Traynor recorded a double-double tonight with 11 points and 10 rebounds against Mercer. Isaiah Rivera had a quiet performance, only scoring 8 points while shooting 2-3 (66.6%) from the field and beyond the arc. In the second half, Rivera took a hard fall onto the court and didn’t play in the rest of the game, currently it is unclear about his status.

#1: C.J. Gunn is another key player in the DePaul basketball machine

What a debut for Gunn! Despite being missing for the first two games of the season, it didn’t take long for him to acclimate to the team and make an immediate impact.

Gunn against the Bears, besides his 13 points, he shot 6-10 (60%) from the field and 1-3 (33.3%) from beyond the arc.

When asked about Gunn’s performance, Holtmann stated that he likes his defensive versatility and what he can bring to the table.

“I’m going to look at his like, his defensive versatility and his ability to guard different positions and, you know, get deflections, because I think that’s maybe his greatest strength that he can bring to this group,” said Holtmann.

To further add on, Holtmann said that Gunn brought another dimension to the team and cited how critical the bench group would be for the season.

#2: The Blue Demons are a menace in on-ball defense

Before going into this matchup, Mercer had scored 42 points off of turnovers and only committed 13 turnovers in their first game. In this game, the Bears were the ones facing a beat down in terms of turnovers.

Mercer committed 21 turnovers against the Blue Demons, with 14 alone in the first half. The home team capitalized on those opportunities by scoring 27 points on turnovers. DePaul also had 10 steals against the Bears, with Layden Blocker having four in the matchup.

If DePaul can continue to be this much of a pest going into their next several matchups, they will be a team to watch out for in the Big East conference.

#3: The defense in general continues to improve

In terms of opposing shooting percentages, the Bears shot 4-24 (17%) from beyond the arc. Against the Dragons, Mercer shot 13-30 (43.3%) from the three. The Blue Demons never allowed their opponents to get a lead for the entire game, the second straight time.

There were also multiple times when Mercer went on a scoring drought. DePaul basketball had a 9-0 run in the first three minutes of the game, an 8-0 run a few minutes later, and forced a scoring drought for the last 2:11 in the game.

The Blue Demons will face a recognized foe in the Duquesne Dukes, who are coming off of two straight losses to start the season. The most recent one was a 68-75 defeat to the Princeton Tigers.

Next up for DePaul (3-0) vs Duquesne (0-2) – Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. CST (9 p.m. EST)

Next up for Mercer (1-1) vs Trinity Baptist (0-2) – Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. CST (8 p.m. EST)