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CHICAGO – In its first road game on the year, Northern Kentucky fell 77-68 at DePaul. The loss drops NKU to 2-3 on the year, while DePaul stays unblemished at 5-0.
 
STATS LEADERS

• Marques Warrick finished with a game-high 23 points. He also added three rebounds.
• Trevon Faulkner Tallied 14 points, while chipping in with six rebounds and a pair of assists.
• Sam Vinson was the third Norse in double-figures with 10 points. The freshman guard grabbed four boards and handed out four dimes.
• DePaul's Javon Freeman-Liberty put together a 20-point, 12-rebound outing for the Blue Demons.

Turning Point

• Shooting from the floor proved difficult over the final nine minutes of the first half for NKU. DePaul erased Northern Kentucky's one point lead at the time and closed the stanza outscoring NKU 19-9.

FIRST HALF SUMMARY

• The Norse and Blue Demons battled early with four ties and seven lead changes, with Warrick knocking down a three at the 9:01 mark to give the Norse their last lead.
• After making 7-of-16 field goals over the first 11 minutes, NKU went on a stretch where it converted just one of its final 17 attempts to close the half.
• Northern Kentucky kept within striking distance thanks to 10-for-10 shooting at the charity stripe and keeping the rebound battle within one of DePaul at 21-20.
• NKU shot 24 percent from the floor (8-of-33) and 36 percent (4-of-11) from three. DePaul hit 50 percent (15-of-30) and 42 percent from long range (5-fo-12).
• Warrick had 10 points to lead the Norse, while Faulkner had eight points and four rebounds.

SECOND HALF SUMMARY

• Northern Kentucky used a three by Faulkner to open scoring in the stanza, but DePaul answered with seven-straight to force an NKU timeout trailing, 46-33.
• The Norse countered with a 6-2 spurt, but the Blue Demons followed with six-straight of their own again and eventually led by as many as 19.
• An 8-0 run from NKU, which included two treys from Hubertas Pivorius, closed out the stanza.
• NKU hit 42 percent (15-of-36) of its field-goal attempts and 40 percent (6-of-15) of its threes. The Blue Demons converted 55 percent (16-of-29) of their shots, but only 20 percent from deep (1-of-5).

GAME NOTES

• The Norse finished the game shooing 33 percent (23-of-69) overall, but made 39 percent (10-of-26) of their three.
• Four players had six or more rebounds in the game for Northern Kentucky to help it to a 41-37 rebounding advantage. Chris Brandon had seven, while Adrian Nelson, David Böhm and Faulkner all contributed six.
• With his 23 points today, Warrick is the third Norse already this year to eclipse the 20-point plateau, joining Faulkner and Pivorius.

UP NEXT
Horizon League preseason favorite and reigning champion Cleveland State provides the first conference test of the year for Northern Kentucky. NKU heads to Cleveland, Ohio, for a 7 p.m. showdown on Thursday, Dec. 2 at the Wolstein Center.