Hot-shooting No. 22 Butler holds on, finishes off DePaul

Kellen Dunham scored 24 points and Roosevelt Jones added 20 as No. 22 Butler survived a second-half rally by DePaul and beat the Blue Demons 83-73 before a sellout crowd at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday.

The win sets up a major showdown next Saturday at Hinkle when No. 7 Villanova visits. Butler (18-6, 8-3 Big East) came into the day tied with Providence for second in the league standings, but the Friars lost 78-69 at Xavier. The Bulldogs are one-half game behind No. 7 and first-place Villanova (21-2, 8-2), which beat No. 24 Georgetown 69-53 on Saturday.

The Wildcats play at Providence on Wednesday, so they either will be tied with Butler of have a one-game lead when they visit Indianapolis.

DePaul (12-13, 6-6) didn't make it easy on the Bulldogs after falling behind by double-digits early. They rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit and cut Butler's lead to 55-50 on Jamee Crocket's dunk with 10:08 left.

But Butler coach Chris Holtmann went back to this starting five in the ensuing timeout and the Bulldogs outscored the Blue Demons 17-10 over the next five minutes. Kameron Woods' laying off an alley-oop pass from Jones stretched the lead back to 72-60 with 5:18 left.

The Bulldogs were 27-for-47 from the field (57.7 percent), including 8-for-15 from 3-point range.

Butler came out red hot and stayed that way through most of the first half, hitting its first five 3-point shots and taking a 37-18 lead when Dunham hit a 3-pointer with 6:34. The Bulldogs were 15-for-22 from the field overall (68.2 percent) with 3:30 left and had a 40-27 lead at the break.

Crockett had 14 points to lead DePaul.

Michael Pointer writes for The Indianapolis Star, a Gannett paper.