DePaul men’s b-ball takes down no. 8 Xavier, 73-72

CHICAGO — DePaul pulled off the upset over no. 8 Xavier Wednesday night.

Umoja Gibson led all scorers with 22 points on 7/16 shooting while Javan Johnson poured in another 16 to lead the Blue Demons to a 1-point win, 73-72, Wednesday night.

Xavier got out to a fast start in the first half, taking a 11-3 lead after Jack Nunge knocked down a midrange jumper a little over two-and-a-half minutes into the game, but Depaul outscored the Musketeers 42-29 over the remaining 17:27 to take a 45-40 lead into halftime.

After expanding their lead to as much as 7 points with a little more than 7 minutes to go, Xavier clawed their way back, tying the game at 64-all with 5:32 remaining, then eventually taking the lead 70-68 with 1:43 remaining after an Adam Kunkel layup.

The Blue Demons then took a timeout and took the lead back on an and-one layup from Eral Penn with 1:27 remaining.

Xavier’s Zach Freemantle made a pair of free throws with 46 seconds left to temporarily take the lead back, 72-71, but Da’Sean Nelson made what would end up being the game-winning layup, assisted by Gibson, with 28 seconds remaining to bring the game to its final score, 73-72.

DePaul travels next to play the no. 22-ranked Providence Friars in Rhode Island on Saturday at 1 p.m.