Even without 6-foot-9 Andre Brown inside, the Blue Demons frustrated the Huskies and prevented them from anything easy in the paint.

Brown, who averaged 14.5 points a game last season and 9.4 rebounds – both team highs – would have presented a problem for the Huskies (1-2) who are without their starting center Mike Morrison for up to five weeks with knee surgery.

DePaul’s zone defense held NIU to only 16 points in the paint and made every pass to the interior difficult.

“We worked in practice to defend the post,” DePaul center Sam Hoskin said. “Especially when their best player got the ball and that’s what we did.”

Hoskin had a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with 13 points in 24 minutes.

NIU forward Marcus Smallwood was held to 2-of-6 shooting from the floor for seven points. He had been averaging 14 points a contest.

Smallwood credited DePaul for its defensive pressure, but said the key to the game was NIU’s inability to stop its inside game.

“We knew they had really good post guys coming in and we knew the defense we were going to have to play to be intense and keep up with their level of play,” Smallwood said. “Sometimes we did that and sometimes we didn’t; myself included. That was a big part of the game and that’s something we’re going to have to work on.”

Not only did DePaul contain NIU with its zone, but it also held a 45-29 edge on the glass including 13 offensive boards.

The Blue Demons had 16 second-chance points off those 13 offensive careums.

The Huskies shot 33 percent for the game. DePaul challenged NIU’s guards to make shots and, with the exception of guard Perry Smith who connected on four-three pointers, they couldn’t.

“When a team goes zone you have to make some shots and we had a stretch where we couldn’t make shots,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “We then made some bad decisions as we tried to force our offense. That was mostly due to DePaul’s change in defenses.”