DePaul dominates No. 20 George Washington in confounding upset

One team seemed to be eager to get to the holiday break Tuesday night and the other played determined team basketball when No. 20 George Washington traveled to DePaul .

The expectation was the more focused group would be the Colonials who have previously beaten the likes of Virginia this season and came into the contest with just one loss, gaining national respect each time out. But DePaul badly outplayed the nation’s 20th ranked team in an 82-61 blowout, easily one of the most surprising outcomes of a fun night in college hoops.

[UConn loses starting center Amida Brimah to a broken finger]

Perhaps the most confounding part of George Washington’s ugly performance was the fact its players came into the game talking about how they wouldn’t allow themselves to overlook an opponent or be too happy with themselves or their ranking.They had beaten their previous four opponents by an average of 16.3 points with no real signs of complacency.

But that’s exactly what appeared to come from the Colonials on Tuesday, particularly on the defensive end. 

The Colonials gave up the most points they have in a month and made things much too easy for the Blue Demons. The defensive lapses actually began in the second half of George Washington’s previous game when they allowed St. Peter’s to shoot 57 percent after halftime.

[Oregon hasn’t let a flurry of early injuries derail its season]

DePaul made 55 percent of its shots and 44 percent from behind the 3-point line. Junior Billy Garrett Jr. led the Blue Demons with 20 points and seven assists. Eli Cain added 16 and Aaron Simpson scored 15 helping the Blue Demons break a three-game losing streak and get back to .500 at 6-6.

George Washington was averaging more than 78 points a game prior to Tuesday and had shot 43 percent from behind the 3-point line as a team in the previous five games. They made only three of 20 shots behind the arc against DePaul and just didn’t play like the team that had earned a top-20 ranking.

– – – – – – –

[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo