In spite of a slow and somewhat sloppy first ten minutes of play, the Depaul Men’s Basketball team defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 81-62 on Saturday night at McGrath Phillips Arena. Forcing turnovers is a sign of a strong defense and the Blue Demons can take pride in having forced 22. Brandon Young led DePaul with 19 total points followed by Jeremiah Kelly’s 15 and Cleveland Melvin’s 13 points. The first half featured thunderous dunks by Crockett, Faber and McKinney. Young is now just 15 points shy of a career total of 600 points. Melvin finds himself 8 points from the same milestone. The Blue Demons came out strong in the first few minutes of the second half and led at one point by 27. Coach Purnell said he felt that “we made some progress as a team tonight.” He went on to say that “hopefully we can continue to do that against Cal Poly, who has beaten USC this year.” DePaul faces Cal Poly Dec. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Allstate Arena in their final non-conference game of the season. With their first Big East conference game looming Jan. 1 against top ranked Syracuse, slow starts are no longer an option.