Strus carries DePaul past South Florida to even CBI series

Updated: Apr 4, 2019, 05:09 am

CHICAGO -- Max Strus scored 32 points and DePaul beat South Florida 100-96 in overtime Wednesday night, sending the College Basketball Invitational championship round to a deciding third game.

DePaul (19-16) will host the Bulls (23-14) on Friday night for the title.

Paul Reed had a career-high 28 points along with 16 rebounds and three blocks for the Blue Demons to tie the series at one game each. Femi Olujobi added 14 points.

Reed hit a 3-pointer to give DePaul an 82-79 lead, but he missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 57 seconds left in regulation. USF worked the ball around the arc and Alexis Yetna made a 3-pointer to tie it with a half-minute left. After a timeout, Strus dribbled down the clock, but nearly turned it over as time expired.

Lyrik Shreiner got into the lane and made a contested layup to extend DePaul's lead to 94-88 with 1:41 left in overtime. The Blue Demons stayed ahead by making foul shots.

Laquincy Rideau had a career-high 35 points and eight assists and South Florida. Yetna had 26 points and 13 rebounds, and Justin Brown added 13 points.

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Elements of this were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com