Turnovers doom DePaul in loss to St. John’s

Turnovers continue to plague DePaul this season.

St. John took advantage of the Blue Demons’ errors and scored 30 points off 18 DePaul turnovers to win 81-68 on Wednesday night at Wintrust Arena.

The Blue Demons average 16.6 turnovers per game, which ranks them 317th worst out of 340 NCAA men’s basketball programs.

DePaul (3-6, 1-6 Big East) failed to capitalize on their first conference win on Saturday at Marquette. Charlie Moore lead a balanced scoring effort with 14 points in the second half and finished with a game-high 21 to lead DePaul. Pauly Paulicap finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds for his first double-double with the Blue Demons.

Vince Cole lead St. John’s with 18 points. Julian Champagnie added 16 points for the Red Storm (10-7, 4-6).

St. John’s took a 10-point lead halfway through the first half before a DePaul run cut the deficit to five. The Red Storm answered with a 10-2 run over the next three minutes and took a 49-34 lead at halftime.

Paulicap and Javon Freeman-Liberty combined for 16 of DePaul’s first 18 points with Paulicap grabbing four offensive rebounds in the first four minutes of the game. He finished with 10 offensive boards.

The Johnnies’ lead fluctuated between 10 to 15 points in the second half, but they always were able to respond to several Blue Demon mini-runs that would cut the deficit to single digits.

Moore added four assists and two steals to his 21 points and Paulicap posted two blocked shots with his double-double. Freeman-Liberty finished with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists.