Naughton scores 20 to lead DePaul over N Dakota St

CHICAGO (AP)—Deirdre Naughton scored 20 points, topping 1,000 points in her DePaul career, and the 17th-ranked Blue Demons beat North Dakota State 77-65 on Sunday night.

The senior guard passed the milestone with a layup at the 17:15 mark of the first half. She now has 1,019 points for her three DePaul seasons and 1,438 points for a four-year career including freshman year at Wake Forest.

“We could have done a better job—all of us—at keeping everyone together,” Naughton said. “We had some instances where we didn’t know what we were running on offense. I can’t really say we held together in the second half.”

The Blue Demons (2-0) never trailed and opened a 20-point lead by half. But the Bison (1-1) fought back in the second half and cut the deficit to 72-65 as DePaul managed just one field goal over 5-minute span.

“We did some good things in the first half, but in the second half we did not finish what we needed to finish,” DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. “I don’t think there’s a place for the regression we experienced in the second half. You can say it’s early, but we’ve got some veteran players on this team and I expected more out of them in the second half.”

Jennifer Juergens had 17 points and reserve Anna Martin added 15 for the Blue Demons.

Janae Burich scored 13 points and Ashley Samuelseon added 11 for North Dakota State.

“We were getting nice shots in the first half but they just weren’t falling,” Bison coach Carolyn DeHoff said. “Our kids buckled down and they responded in the second half. They came out and shot the ball better and obviously defended them better.”