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Burns, Chandler make big plays as DePaul tops Notre Dame

Feb 9, 2007 - 4:42 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Draelon Burns was quiet all night, but he picked an opportune time to come up big.

Burns made a steal at mid-court and fed Wilson Chandler for a breakaway dunk in the closing seconds, leading DePaul to a 67-66 victory over No. 21 Notre Dame in a Big East Conference thriller.

Chandler posted season highs of 25 points and 14 rebounds and blocked a follow shot with one second left to secure the victory for the Blue Demons, who had lost four of their previous five games.

The Fighting Irish had a 66-65 edge with 27 seconds left. After an inbounds pass in the backcourt to Colin Falls, Burns, the best ball defender on the club, stripped him cleanly at mid-court. As he was falling out of bounds, he secured the ball and fed Chandler, who was ahead of the pack and dunked easily with 20 seconds remaining.

Burns, who entered averaging a club-best 13 points in conference games, scored 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting.

On Notre Dame's final possession, Tory Jackson had his dribble knocked away, recovered and fed 6-11 freshman Luke Zeller, who took an off-balance 3-pointer that hit off the front of the rim with about four seconds left. Rob Kurz got the offensive rebound, pump-faked but had his follow shot blocked from behind by Chandler as time expired.

"Notre Dame is a great team. What is great about this rivalry is the mutual respect each team has for one another," DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright said. "It's a great win for us. Our team is better when we have to be spontaneous. ... (Marcus) Heard and Chandler executed well against Notre Dame's zone defense."

Chandler shot 10-of-19 from the floor and added three blocks.

Heard scored six of his 10 points in the final three minutes for DePaul (14-11, 5-6 Big East), which improved to 10-2 at home this season.

Falls scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half for Notre Dame (18-6, 6-5), which dropped to 1-5 on the road in conference play.

The Blue Devils committed 17 turnovers but shot 49 percent (28-of-57) from the floor. The Fighting Irish shot just 41 percent (26-of-64), including 7-of-22 from the arc. DePaul won the battle of the boards, 38-33.

"You have to give DePaul credit. They can really get out and guard when they want to," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "We didn't rebound, that's what hurt us."

Notre Dame scored the first 11 points of the contest before DePaul responded with a 24-9 run.

A 3-pointer by Falls with 8 1/2 minutes to play gave the Irish a 55-54 lead. A little later, Falls scored on a fallaway jumper and two drives to provide a 63-59 lead, but Heard scored on a layup and a jam to tie the game with 2:40 to play.

Jackson nailed a shot from the arc 33 ticks later to give Notre Dame a 66-63 lead, but Heard followed a miss with 1:39 to play to set the stage for Burns.