Blog

“The team goals are pretty straight forward,” graduate forward Michelle Ojo said before DePaul’s Nov. 4 season opener. “We’re looking to be the most competitive team in the Big East.”

Fellow forward Meg Newman, a redshirt senior, specified that the goal was to finish “in the top four of the Big East” and earn a post-season bid. 

Still weeks away from their first conference opponent, the Blue Demons’ season, the first with Jill M. Pizzotti as head coach, started on a strong note. Three guards, redshirt freshman Ally Timm, junior Kate Novik and sophomore Natiah Nelson, finished with double-digit point totals in the 92-54 home win against Valparaiso. Nelson also recorded the first double-double of her career.

The tide quickly changed, however, with the Blue Demons dropping six of their next seven games. The stretch included a loss to Northern Colorado in the second and final round of the DePaul Multi-Team Event (MTE), two losses to Chicagoland-based programs — Northwestern and Loyola Chicago — and a 30-point loss against Princeton.

Their lone win during the stretch, a 75-39 final against Grambling State, came in the first round of the MTE, with Novik and Newman combining for 30 points on 12-for-15 shooting from the field. Newman, who missed the team’s first four games with a leg injury, came off the bench, but has since returned to her incumbent starting spot.

With a 2-6 record, the Blue Demons sat before back-to-back conference games against Marquette and UConn. Combined, DePaul scored 89 points while allowing 187. 

Despite the 67-point loss to No. 1 UConn, the Blue Demons bounced back decisively, picking up their third win of the year in a 30-point home victory against UMass Lowell. Four players — Newman, Nelson, Novik and Ojo — scored 10 or more points. Novik tacked on 12 rebounds and 10 assists, finishing with her first career triple-double and the eighth in program history. This performance got her a Big East Honor Roll nod.

The offensive explosion could not be sustained, however, as the Blue Demons lost each of their next two, the first at home against No. 25 Michigan State and the second on the road against UIC.

The loss to UIC, DePaul’s final non-conference opponent, marked the Blue Demons’ first loss to their South Loop neighbors since 1981. 

“Every game on your schedule, you’re trying to win, but certainly your cross-town rivals,” Pizzotti said. “You really want to win those games and establish yourself as the women’s basketball program in the city of Chicago.”

Now, DePaul’s focus pivots away from local rivals and to the Big East, where they already have an 0-2 record.

Despite featuring the worst scoring defense and third-worst scoring offense in the conference, DePaul has yet to be at full strength on the court, and help appears to be on the way at a crucial time.

Junior guard Shakara McCline missed the team’s first 10 games, but has averaged 14.2 points per game in three outings since returning to the lineup. Kate Clarke, the team’s highest returning scorer from a year ago, has yet to play this season, but is progressing and could return “after the holiday” according to Pizzotti.

On the other hand, Novik, who leads the team in points, rebounds, assists and blocks, was forced to miss the team’s loss to UIC due to a left ankle injury.

“There’s a chance we’ll have her back fairly soon,” Pizzotti said.

Redshirt junior guard Aizhanique Mayo is similarly out of the lineup due to injury after averaging 5.7 points over the season’s first six games. A transfer from Xavier, her experience in the conference would be helpful as the Big East schedule starts up. 

Still, the most curious addition to the Blue Demons’ lineup may end up being 6-foot-4 forward Katelynn Oxley who’s fresh off her fourth and final volleyball season.

“Katelynn walked into my office and said she was interested in trying out for the basketball team,” Pizzotti said following Oxley’s Dec. 10 signing. “Even though Katelynn hasn’t played a lot of basketball in the last five years, she jumps extremely well, she’s an extremely great individual, she’s a great student, and the opportunity to add 6’3’’-plus in the middle of the year is a gift. It’s an absolute gift.”

It is unlikely that Oxley would completely turn around a team with the worst rebound differential in the Big East, but having only played one game to date, the Blue Demons do not yet know exactly what they have in their newest addition.  

“I don’t feel like we’ve got a group where it’s obvious who should be starting, who’s coming off  (the bench),” Pizzotti said. “It’s been a little bit game to game in seeing who’s got something to provide on any given night.”

With their Big East schedule set to tip off on Dec. 20 at Creighton, the Blue Demons will play three more games against Villanova, St. John’s and Providence before the end of their winter break, a period that taught them lessons on the court that they will have to carry into the new year.

“We’ve learned a lot about our team,” Pizzotti said. “When you’re putting seven new players together and then adding a couple players who had not (been) able to play last year, I feel like we learn a lot every week.”

Related stories: