GAME NOTES: The DePaul Blue Demons head to the Pacific Northwest for a Thursday night meeting with the Oregon State Beavers at Gill Coliseum.

This is just the second time this season that DePaul has left the state of Illinois, the other trip sending the program to Washington D.C. where it lost to George Washington by a score of 81-68 last week. Last Sunday, DePaul was back at Allstate Arena in front of a favorable crowd, but the result was the same as the team suffered a 78-72 loss to Illinois State.

The Blue Demons will be heading even further west after this meeting as they travel to Honolulu to take part in the annual Diamond Head Classic.

While DePaul has dropped two games in a row, the Beavers have lost a total of just two decisions through the first nine outings. Since dropping back-to-back encounters with Oklahoma State and Auburn late last month, the team has put together a four-game win streak. The latest victory for OSU took place on Monday night as the team thumped Grambling State, 71-43, in the second of a three-game homestand.

DePaul owns a 2-0 advantage in the all-time series between the programs, posting a 59-40 victory in the first meeting back in 1945, and a 93-81 triumph just last season.

Jamee Crockett tallied a career-high 22 points for the Blue Demons on Sunday in Rosemont, but his efforts and those of his teammates fell short of keeping them out of the loss column versus Illinois State. Unfortunately, while Tommy Hamilton was building a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Myke Henry and Billy Garrett delivered 12 and 10 points, respectively, the team as a whole was turning the ball over 18 times and shooting a mere 12-of-21 at the free-throw line.

Henry, a 56.1 percent shooter from the floor through nine games, continues to lead the Blue Demons in scoring with his 17.0 ppg, adding 6.4 rpg for good measure. Hamilton (13.6 ppg, 7.3 rpg) paces the program with 15 blocked shots, but doesn't make up for the fact that he has just 12 assists and 28 turnovers. Crockett checks in with 13.3 ppg as a 55.4 percent shooter, followed by Garrett with not only 12.8 ppg, but also 32 dishes.

Oregon State took no pity on the visiting Tigers, limiting Grambling State to a ridiculous two field goals on 12 attempts in the first half and nine made baskets for the entire game. The visitors were limited to 28.1 percent accuracy from the floor, but kept the score from being truly embarrassing by hitting 23-of-28 at the free-throw line.

The Beavers, who converted 19-of-31 at the charity stripe, were paced by Victor Robbins who dropped in 22 points off the bench, followed by Malcolm Duvivier with 16 points. However, the real star of the game was Gary Payton II who came awfully close to recording a rare quadruple-double with his 10 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and six steals. Coincidentally, the only other triple-double logged by an OSU player in history was father Gary Payton back in 1988.

Clearly the Beavers have the ability to put points on the board, averaging 66.6 ppg with the help of Payton (13.4 ppg) and Langston Morris-Walker (10.9 ppg), but the team really makes an impression at the defensive end of the floor where they are seventh in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.342) and 11th in points allowed (55.0 ppg).

The Blue Demons are already a team that can be held down by a tough defense, so to pit the visitors against Oregon State spells a victory for the hosts.