CHICAGO, Ill. – The short-handed Villanova Wildcats traveled to Chicago on Friday night where the fell to the DePaul Blue Demons by a score of 75-63. With the loss, Villanova had its five-game winning streak snapped and fall to 8-6 overall and 2-3 in BIG EAST play, while the Blue Demons improve to 13-4 overall and 5-1 in league play.
Villanova had just nine players dressed for the game with three players being sidelined due to Covid related health and safety protocols.
Junior forward Maddy Siegrist was dominant in the opening half scoring 20 points to help lead Villanova to a 33-30 halftime advantage. In addition to the Siegrist offensive outburst, the Wildcats had the halftime lead in large part to their perimeter defense that forced DePaul into an 0-for-6 shooting effort from behind the arc.
Following a Siegrist lay-up on the first possession of the second half that increased her team's advantage to 35-30, the Blue Demons went on a 12-2 run to take a 42-37 lead. Villanova freshman guard Lucy Olsen ended the DePaul spurt with a lay-up that pulled the Wildcats within three at 42-39, before DePaul ran off six straight points to go back up nine at 48-39.
DePaul would use the run to take a 53-46 lead after three quarters of play.
The Blue Demons led 56-46 early in the fourth quarter, when Villanova scored seven straight points to make it a 56-53 game with 7:25 to play. The seven points included two lay-ups by Siegrist and a three-ball by sophomore Lior Garzon.
DePaul responded to the Villanova spurt by going on a decisive 9-0 run to grab a 65-53 lead at the 4:52 mark. Following the nine consecutive points, Villanova would not get within nine the rest of the way.
Siegrist led the way in the loss with 31 points and 14 rebounds. The 31 points came on 12-of-18 shooting, a 2-of-4 effort from three-point range and a 5-of-7 performance from the foul line. Garzon finished with her first career double-double of 12 points and a career-best 10 rebounds.
The Blue Demons were paced by Sonya Morris who had 25 points and Aneesah Morrow with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
For the game, Villanova was 23-of-61 from the field (37.7%), 4-of-24 from three-point range (16.7%) and 13-of-17 from the foul line (76.5%), while DePaul shot 50.8 percent from the floor (32-of-63), 35.7 percent from long distance (5-of-14) and 85.7 percent from the charity stripe (6-of-7). DePaul owned a 37-33 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Sunday afternoon when the Wildcats will play at Marquette. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m., eastern time.
NOTES: In five career games versus DePaul, Maddy Siegrist has tallied 140 points (28.8 ppg.) and 54 rebounds (10.8 rpg.)…Tonight was the 27th career double-double for Maddy Siegrist and her 10th career 30-point game… Villanova falls to 1-5 all-time in games played at Wintrust Arena…Maddy Siegrist moved past Helen Koskinen and Katie Davis and into 15th place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,320 points.
