The Syracuse Orange lead the DePaul Blue Demons 45-26 at halftime from the Allstate Arena.
The Blue Demons, playing in front of their home crowd, got off to a 7-2 lead. The Orange responded with a 15-2 run. DePaul used their pressure to try to stay in the game. They trailed 22-15 after the first 10 minutes as Syracuse was able to beat the pressure.
Syracuse used another run (8-0) to push their lead out to 31-18 with a little less than 6 minutes to play in the half. Being able to score easy points in transition boosted the Orange's field goal percentage. Syracuse finished the first half shooting 66% from the floor. DePaul struggled to make their shots against the Syracuse zone and missed all 8 of their three-point attempts in the first half.
Kris Joseph had a hot start for the Orange with 13 points. Coming off the game in which he set the Syracuse record for blocks, Fabricio Melo had 3 blocks in the first half against DePaul. Melo also had six points and four rebounds. The Blue Demons were led by Cleveland Melvin's 10 points.
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