Demon time

Good morning! We had a thrilling night of basketball. Let’s get to it.

1. DePaul survives USF comeback, Vanderbilt tops Wake Forest

It wouldn’t be a night of college basketball without a valiant comeback and late-game dramatics. DePaul’s 82-80 win over South Florida had both.

The Blue Demons built a 56-37 lead with 18:09 to play, but South Florida made it a game down the stretch. USF trailed by two points with 53 seconds left before Layden Blocker hit a clutch mid-range jump shot, which proved to be the winning basket.

South Florida trimmed it to two again with six seconds left and forced a DePaul turnover on the inbound (even though the referee clearly made the incorrect out of bounds call). However, it didn’t end up mattering, as the final look at the basket didn’t go for the Bulls.

Sophomore guard Kruz McClure led DePaul with 18 points, and South Florida’s Garrett Johnson had a game-high 26 points with eight 3-pointers. The Blue Demons shot 14-of-32 (43.8%) from 3 and led wire-to-wire despite the late game dramatics.

Moving onto No. 24 Vanderbilt, the Commodores dominated Wake Forest 74-51. Tyler Tanner was the standout with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and freshman point guard Anthony Brown Jr. was also electric with 14 points off the bench.

Both teams didn’t have great nights offensively and shot under 40%. Vanderbilt’s 48-33 rebounding advantage, including 17 offensive boards, was the biggest difference. Kevair Kennedy’s 20 points paced the Demon Deacons.

2. Seven other ranked teams in action

It was a buy game Thursday night for the top teams in the sport, and it showed in the results.

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