UNCASVILLLE, CONN. – In the quarterfinal round of the 2021 BIG EAST Tournament, the Villanova Wildcats tallied a 78-72 overtime win over the DePaul Blue Demons. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 15-5 overall, while DePaul falls to 14-8 on the season.
 
Villanova will now advance to Sunday's semifinals to take on top-seed Connecticut at 3 p.m.
 
DePaul led 43-40 with 6:25 left in the third quarter, when the Wildcats went on a 12-0 run to take a 52-43 lead at the 1:32 mark. Sophomore Maddy Siegrist led the spurt with six points, while senior Sarah Mortensen drained a three and senior Brianna Herlihy added a lay-up and a foul shot. Villanova would use the run to propel them to a 55-45 lead after three.
 
After a Mortensen jumper gave Villanova a 61-52 lead midway through the fourth quarter, the Blue Demons scored eight straight points to cut the Wildcat advantage to 61-60 with 2:13 left on the clock. The Wildcats ended the 3:57 scoreless stretch when senior guard Raven James buried a three from straight away and Villanova led 64-60 with 1:45 to go.
 
A Deja Church lay-up pulled the Blue Demons within two at 64-62 with 52 seconds remaining. Villanova advanced the ball to the front court and ran the shot clock down, before turning it over with 27 seconds left. DePaul wasted no time tying the game just seven seconds later on two Church free throws.
 
With the shot clock off, Villanova was holding for the last shot when Herlihy was tied up with 5.4 seconds to play. With the arrow in DePaul's favor, the Blue Demons called timeout and advanced the ball to the frontcourt.  DePaul got the ball to Church who drove the lane and misfired on a running jumper as time expired.
 
Each team failed to score in overtime for the first 1:29, until DePaul struck first on two free throws by Jorie Allen which gave the Blue Demons a 66-64 advantage. On Villanova's next possession, Siegrist made two free throws and we were even at 66-66. Following a defensive stop, Villanova took a 69-66 lead when Siegrist connected on a three from the left wing with 1:59 to play in the extra session. The lead was short lived, as DePaul freshman Darrione Rogers buried a three of her own and the game was tied at 69-69 at the 1:42 mark.
 
Villanova took the lead for good on the next trip down the court with 1:17 left, when Herlihy scored on a short jumper.  After a defensive stop, Villanova went up four at 73-69 on a Siegrist 10-foot jumper. The Wildcats would go 5-of-6 from the foul line over the final 16 seconds to seal the win.
 
In the victory, Siegrist led the way with 30 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two steals. She was 11-of-19 from the field, 3-of-4 from three and 5-of-8 from the foul line. Herlihy finished with 19 points, while Mortensen added 13 points. James finished with eight points and four assists.
 
DePaul was paced by Church with 19 points and Sonya Morris who had 16 points.
 
For the game, Villanova was 28-of-63 from the field (44.4%), 11-of-29 from three (37.9%) and 11-of-16 from the foul line (68.8%), while DePaul shot 36.6 percent from (26-of-71), 30.4 percent from long distance (7-of-23) and 76.5 percent from the charity stripe (13-of-17). DePaul owned a 42-40 advantage on the backboards.
 
NOTES: The Wildcats have now won their first game in the BIG EAST Tournament in 26 of the 38 tournaments they have played in…Villanova improves to 5-4 all-time as the fifth seed in the BIG EAST Tournament…Today was the sixth 30-point game of Maddy Siegrist's career and the fifth of the 2020-21 season…Maddy Siegrist now has 12 double-doubles on the year and 23 for her career…Siegrist has scored 20 or more points in 14 of the 20 games this year…With her 30 point performance today, Maddy Siegrist moves past four former Wildcats and into 25th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,055 career points…In four career games versus DePaul, Maddy Siegrist has scored 109 points for an average of 27.2 points per game…Today was the 16th double figure scoring game of the season for Brianna Herlihy…With her 13 point effort, Sarah Mortensen has reached double figures in 12 games this year…Dating back to last year, Villanova has won six-straight overtime games.