By Kenneth Cross
DePaul forward Javan Johnson scored 20 points as the Blue Demons moved to 3-0 on the season in taking a 69-53 win at Minnesota on Monday Night.
DePaul trailed 16-14 when Pharrel Payne scored on a dunk with 12:09 remaining in the first half. From there, DePaul hit a 10-0 run over 5:10 as the Golden Gophers were 0-for-12 during that stretch and Eral Penn and Umoja Gibson scored four points each in that string.
Defensively, the Blue Demons held Minnesota to 33.3 percent from the floor as the Gophers made 18-of-54 shots. The Gophers didn’t score over the last five minutes of the game as they were 0-for-4 with a turnover.
The Golden Gophers made six of their first seven field goals to start the second half as they took a 49-30 lead on a jumper from Philmon Gebrewhit with 14:22 remaining.
Gebrewhit was 6-of-11 from the field with three triples while Minnesota’s Payne was 6-for-6 from the floor in 27 minutes.
The Blue Demons capitalized with a 48-32 advantage on the boards as Penn led DePaul with 14 rebounds while capsulized his double-double with 10 points.