VILLANOVA, Pa. – A gritty response by the No. 14/15 Villanova in overtime carried it to a 79-75 victory over DePaul in a BIG EAST battle Tuesday night at Finneran Pavilion. The Wildcats outscored the Blue Demons 12-8 in the extra period after watching the Blue Demons erase a 66-55 lead with 2:14 to play in regulation.
 
Villanova bumps its record to 13-3 overall, 4-1 in the BIG EAST while DePaul drops to 12-5 overall, 0-4 in league play. The victory was Villanova's eighth consecutive home court win in 2019-20 and 19^th straight dating back to November 2018 losses to Michigan and Furman.
 
Junior Collin Gillespie helped energize the Wildcats in overtime, scoring six of his team-high 21 points on free throws. Sophomore Saddiq Bey added 18 points while freshman forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl posted a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
 
"That's what the Big East is going to be like this year," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright. "You're just going to have to survive. I give a lot of credit to DePaul for great execution down the stretch and not giving up. They're a really good team. Charlie Moore played great."
 
Moore led all scorers with 29 points while Paul Reed added 18 points and 15 rebounds for the Blue Demons.
 
"We were very fortunate to come out with a victory," added Wright. "We'll take it. Any Big East victory is going to be valuable this year."
 
Wright appreciated the grit his team displayed after giving up the late lead under DePaul's pressure.
 
"That's a tough thing to do," noted Wright, who recorded his 232^nd career BIG EAST victory, moving him into sole possession of third place in league history, snapping a tie with Georgetown's John Thompson. "You know all the mistakes you made going down the stretch. But to be able to stick together is a great testament to the leadership of Collin, Jermaine (Samuels) and Da-Da (Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree)."
 
DePaul set an early tone, grabbing a 12-5 lead over the first 5:30 as Jaylen Butz dropped in six points. The Wildcats, meanwhile, were just 2-of-9 from the field before a Saddiq Bey 3-pointer halted the Blue Demons' 8-0 surge.
 
But not long after Bey's triple, DePaul reeled off another run, this one a 9-0 surge. That pushed the lead to 21-8 with 11:03 to play before halftime. It added up to a 17-3 run over 6:04 of the first half.
 
Villanova was able to get some stops and narrowed the gap 21-14. But when Moore sank a deep 3-pointer from the top of the key, DePaul's lead was back to double digits at 28-18 with 3:21 to go before halftime.
 
Terrific defense over the final minutes held the Blue Demons off the board for the remainder of the period. Gillespie helped ignite the offense with a pair of 3-pointers and that led to a 12-0 run burst to close the half.
 
The Wildcats sank 4-of-6 to open the second half, allowing them to gain a 40-36 advantage. But DePaul's offense got going too as the Blue Demons were 7-of-12 in the early stages of the period. The contest was deadlocked at 43 with just more than 13 minutes to play in the period.
 
Villanova slowly pulled away to a 61-49 lead with solid offensive work from Samuels, Gillespie and Robinson-Earl. After a Robinson-Earl added a free throw to make it 66-55, DePaul came storming back, sinking seven consecutive field goals, the last a running drive by Moore with 8.4 seconds in regulation to forge a tie at 67 after 40 minutes.
 
"DePaul did a good job of executing its press," said Wright of the final two minutes of regulation. "But we did not do a good job. There's just basic things you do, that we didn't do."
 
Villanova gathered itself, though, and won the last five minutes.
 
"It's just attitude for us," stated Gillespie. "When they tied it up and we're in the huddle, that's what we're saying. It's going to be a grind every night in this league."
 
Villanova returns to action on Saturday when it hosts once and future BIG EAST rival Connecticut in non-league action at noon at the Wells Fargo Center. The Huskies are playing their final season in the American before returning to their BIG EAST roots in 2020-21. The game will be televised nationally by FS1 with the radio broadcast found on 610 ESPN Radio and the TuneIn app everywhere.
 
The 2019-20 season – Villanova's 100^th college basketball campaign – is presented by Hartford Funds and Coca-Cola.