CHICAGO, Ill. – In women's basketball action on Friday night, the Villanova Wildcats traveled to No. 11 DePaul where they fell by a score of 85-69. With the loss, Villanova drops to 11-8 overall and 5-3 in BIG EAST play, while the Blue Demons improve to 18-2 overall and 8-0 in conference action.
 
Leading 13-5 midway through the opening quarter, the Blue Demons finished the quarter on a 13-7 run to take a 26-12 advantage after one. DePaul guard Lexi Held led the way in the first quarter with 12 points.
 
Villanova outscored DePaul, 12-7, to start the second quarter to cut the Blue Demon lead to 33-24 with 5:02 remaining until halftime. Five different Wildcats scored in the spurt with senior forward Bridget Herlihy adding four points and redshirt freshman Kenzie Gardler connecting on a three-ball.
 
DePaul held a 39-28 advantage with 2:07 on the clock, when Villanova scored six of the game's next eight points to make it a 41-34 game at the 1:09 mark. Herlihy accounted for all six points on back-to-back three-point field goals. The Blue Demons closed out the first half scoring on a short jumper by Chante Stonewall. The Stonewall bucket sent DePaul to halftime with a 43-34 lead.
 
The Blue Demons used a 10-0 run to take a 61-41 advantage with 4:41 to play in the third quarter. After Villanova ran off six straight points to slice the DePaul lead to 61-47, the Blue Demons used a 7-1 run to increase the lead back to 20 at 68-48.
 
Villanova would not get within 14 in the fourth quarter, as the Blue Demons cruised to the victory.
 
In the loss, senior forward Mary Gedaka led the Wildcats with 20 points on 8-of-17 shooting, while redshirt freshman forward Maddy Siegrist had 19 points on 9-of-18 shooting. Herlihy was the third Wildcat in double figures with 14 points. All three were credited with seven rebounds. Junior guard Cameron Onken tallied a team-high nine rebounds and a team-best six assists.
 
DePaul was paced by Sonya Morris who poured in a game-high 30 points and Held who finished with 21 points. Senior guard Kelly Campbell registered five points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
 
For the game, Villanova was 27-of-59 from the field (45.8%), 7-of-19 from three-point range (36.8%) and 8-of-13 from the foul line (61.5%), while DePaul shot 41.7 percent from the floor (30-of-72), 29.4 percent from long distance (10-of-34) and 83.3 percent from the charity stripe (15-of-18). DePaul owned a 42-38 advantage on the backboards.
 
Villanova returns to action on Sunday, Jan. 26, when the Wildcats travel to Marquette. Game time is set for 3 p.m., eastern time.
 
NOTES: Tonight was the 19^th, 20-point game of Mary Gedaka's career…With her 20 points tonight Mary Gedaka moved past Kathie Beisel and into 13^th place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,340 points…Maddy Siegrist has scored double figures in 18 of the 19 games this year…Bridget Herlihy has reached double figures in five of the last seven games.