Nunge special, another slow start: Here's what stood out from Xavier's win over DePaul

CHICAGO – It was odd and ugly and somehow Xavier escaped Wintrust Arena on Wednesday with a 68-67 win over DePaul in a game the Blue Demons led for more than 35 minutes without leading scorer Javon Freeman-Liberty, who didn't play because of an injury.

Xavier held the lead for exactly two minutes and eight seconds, and part of that was the final 1:15 of the game after Jack Nunge hit a free throw to give the Musketeers a lead.

For most of the night, Xavier looked out of sorts. The Musketeers didn't play well, yet they found a way to win on the road in the Big East and improve to 14-3 overall and 4-2 in league play.

Here are three things that stood out from Xavier's win:

Nunge was special

With the game tied, 67-67, following a Nate Johnson turnover, DePaul point guard Jalen Terry brought the ball up the floor and as the Blue Demons had done all night, they set a high ball screen for Terry.

Instead of dropping off that screen like Xavier had done most of the night, the Musketeers called for a designed ball trap, so Nunge left his man alone and with Paul Scruggs, they trapped Terry along the sideline.

Nunge's long arms deflected Terry's pass and Johnson grabbed it while Nunge took off running the floor. Johnson hit Nunge in stride and Nunge drew a foul, went to the line and made a free throw to give Xavier the lead.

"That was a called trap," said Xavier head coach Travis Steele. "Jack did a great job executing it ... we saved it at the right time."

Nunge scored 15 of his team-high 23 points in the second half. The 7-footer drilled two massive 3-pointers late, one when DePaul was ahead 63-58, and another to tie the game, 65-65.

"I thought we fought, you know, we had a tough start to the game, but we stayed together," said Nunge. "We fought until the last buzzer and then we ended up coming out on top. So I'm really proud of the effort our team exhibited."

Nunge scored nine of Xavier's final 10 points over the last five minutes of the game.

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Another slow start

For the third game in a row, Xavier trailed at halftime and let its opponent control the game early.

DePaul was the more aggressive and efficient team for most of the first half and that allowed the Blue Demons to build a 12-point lead halfway through the first half.

Three of DePaul's seven first-half 3-pointers were a product of offensive rebounds. The Blue Demons had nine offensive rebounds in the first half and 11 second-chance points.

DePaul's aggression on the glass, combined with the shot-making of sophomore David Jones, who had 20 of his game-high 26 points in the first half, were the primary reasons why the Blue Demons led for 18 of the game's first 20 minutes.

To Xavier's credit, the Musketeers didn't wait until the second half to make a run. Facing its largest deficit, 29-17, Xavier clawed back with a 12-0 run to tie the game. It was a product of mostly zone defense and productive possessions at the offensive end.

"This has been a pattern the last three games," said Steele. "You look at Villanova, look at Creighton, and this DePaul game – you can't dig yourself a hole in this league."

When asked about the slow starts, Steele said, "I gotta look maybe at lineups too, you know, we gotta dive into the analytical numbers a little bit deeper.

"... You gotta put 40 minutes together in this league. You cannot allow teams to win a four-minute war 17-6. That just can't happen. It doesn't happen to good teams. So we gotta get that fixed, we're addressing it."

An ugly win is still a win

Xavier trailed by double digits in both halves. To escape with a win like that is downright theft and the Musketeers shouldn't apologize for it.

After Scruggs turned it over in the final minute on Xavier's final possession of the game, DePaul called timeout with 23 seconds left.

The Musketeers needed a stop. Scruggs put some tremendous pressure on Terry, who had no room to operate and had to dish it off to Jones, who got swarmed by Johnson and Scruggs before heaving back to Terry in the corner, where Johnson charged at him and altered his shot at the buzzer.

"I thought Paul did a heck of a job just making a hard play on the ball," said Steele. "I told those guys I don't want David Jones to win the game, make somebody else shoot the ball.

"... And Paul did a great job, he saw an opportunity to try to get a tie-up and then Nate had the IQ, the wherewithal ... he ran Jalen Terry off a catch-and-shoot rhythm 3 and made him take a dribble."

There were no apologies made for stealing a win when Xavier played one of its worst games.

"Like I said, man, you don't apologize in this league," Steele said. "Every game is hard. I don't care who you're playing, where it's at, home, away. Every game presents different challenges and just proud of our group for sticking together because we didn't play well, and DePaul, give DePaul a lot of credit for that, right? They played hard. They played tough. But we gotta be better and hold ourselves to a higher standard."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Xavier vs. DePaul basketball: Musketeers top Blue Demons