Paul Reed scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and DePaul cruised to a 72-54 win over Alcorn State on Tuesday in Chicago in the season opener for both teams.

The Blue Demons scored the game's first 17 points and never trailed.

Charlie Moore, a transfer who formerly played for California and Kansas, finished with 14 points in his DePaul debut. He sank all three of his attempts from 3-point range. Freshman Romeo Weems added 13 points for the Blue Demons.

Senior Deshaw Andrews (12 points) was the lone double-figure scorer for Alcorn State. Dominic Brewton added seven points of the Braves' bench.

The Blue Demons shot 50 percent from the floor while limiting the Braves to 25.8 percent shooting. That proved more than enough to offset Alcorn State's 18-8 edge in offensive rebounds and 43-39 overall advantage on the glass.

DePaul sank 7 of 20 attempts from 3-point range while Alcorn State was just 3 of 24 from long distance.

The Blue Demons started impressively, as the first three times they had the ball, they got 3-pointers from Moore, Reed and Moore. A Weems dunk on the next DePaul possession made it 11-0. Back-to-back layups by Jaylen Butz and a Reed dunk bumped the lead to 17-0 before Alcorn State finally got a layup from Troymain Crosby with 14:32 left in the half.

DePaul went into halftime with a 45-26 lead before scoring the first seven points of the second half. Reed sparked that sequence with two free throws and a layup.

The Blue Demons get little rest before playing host to the University of Chicago, a Division III school, on Wednesday night. The Braves travel to face Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday before playing their home opener against Paul Quinn College, an NAIA school, on Nov. 12.

Alcorn State is coming off a 10-21 season. DePaul finished 19-17 last season, losing in the postseason College Basketball Invitational final.

--Field Level Media