CHICAGO – On Wednesday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Ill., the Villanova Wildcats tallied a 62-56 road win over the DePaul Blue Demons. With the victory, Villanova improves to 14-11 overall and 8-5 in BIG EAST play, while DePaul falls to 12-15 on the year and 7-7 in league action.
The story of the opening quarter for Villanova was the play of junior guard Maddie Webber who scored 14 of her team's 22 first quarter points, including connecting on four three-point field goals.
Villanova led 10-8 midway through the opening period and finished the quarter on a 12-7 run to lead 22-15 after one.
DePaul scored the first nine points of the second quarter to erase a seven-point deficit and take a 24-22 lead with 4:57 remaining until halftime. With the score tied at 24-24, DePaul got back-to-back baskets from Kate Clarke and Meg Newman to take a 28-24 advantage, before Villanova scored the final six points of the half to lead 30-28 at the break.
The six Wildcat points included a conventional three-point play by Webber and a three-point field goal from Maddie Burke. Webber led all scorers in the first half with 17 points. Allen led the Blue Demons with 10 points.
Villanova scored seven of the first nine points of the third quarter to take a 37-30 lead. Senior guard Kaitlyn Orihel led the early third quarter surge scoring four of Villanova's seven points. With the momentum on the Wildcats side, DePaul responded with an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 39-38.
With the score even at 41-41, Webber scored Villanova's final four points of the period to give her team a 45-43 lead after three quarters of play.
After a DePaul lay-up by Taylor Johnson-Matthews sliced the Villanova lead to 52-50 with 5:35 to play, the Wildcats tallied seven straight points to open-up a 59-50 advantage at the 3:08 mark. The seven straight points included a 15-foot jump shot and driving lay-up by freshman point guard Jasmine Bascoe and three-ball from freshman Dani Ceseretti.
Following the Ceseretti triple, DePaul would not get within five over the final three minutes.
In the win, Webber scored a career-high 30 points, including a career-best tying five, three-point field goals. Bascoe reached double figures with 10 points to go with five rebounds and five assists. Carter pulled-down a game-high 13 rebounds.
DePaul was paced by Allen with 23 points and Clarke who had 12 points.
For the game, Villanova was 25-of-65 from the field (38.5%), 8-of-26 from three-point range (30.8%) and 4-of-5 from the foul line (80.0%), while DePaul shot 40.7 percent from the floor (22-of-54), 28.6 percent from long distance (2-of-7) and 58.8 percent from the charity stripe (10-of-17). DePaul owned a 41-34 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Sunday, Feb. 16 with a road game at Xavier. Game time is set for 2 p.m.
