The DePaul Blue Demons (12-18 Big East) fell down early to the Connecticut Huskies (18-12) and could not dig themselves out, falling 67-81.
The story of the Huskies' game revolved around dominant defense from C Andre Drummond (5 reb, 4 blk) and C-F Alex Oriakhi (7 reb, 4 blk) and explosive shooting from G Ryan Boatright (19 pts, 7 ast) and Jeremy Lamb (25 pts, 4 ast). Altogether, the Huskies out-rebounded the Blue Demons 36 to 29 and had a combined 10 blocks to DePaul's 3. Offensively, the Blue Demons were out-shot from both the suburbs (.534 versus .324 on two-point field goals) and downtown (.615 versus .364 on three-point attempts).
The Blue Demons did perform well on free throws (.867 or 13 for 15) and got big scores from a pair of sophomores -- F Cleveland Melvin (19 pts, 9 reb) and F Moses Morgan (19 pts, 2 ast) -- but could not find a enough of a rhythm against the Huskies. Sophomore G Brandon Young, who averaged 14.8 points per game during the season, landed only one field goal and four free throws for a combined 6 points on the day.
After Tuesday's first round, the Big East Championship continues on Wednesday with the Connecticut Huskies facies the No. 8-seeded West Virginia Mountaineers.
For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago. For more on Big East basketball, visit the SB Nation blog Big East Coast Bias. For more news and analysis from the day in NCAA hoops, visit SB Nation's college basketball hub.