Overview
The Villanova Wildcats rode strong defense and a 50-point second half to a 76-57 victory at DePaul Wednesday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
Junior
Tyler Perkins led the way with 20 points while
Duke Brennan added 15 points and 12 boards – his 13
th double-double of 2025-26.
Devin Askew scored all 14 of his points after halftime.
The win was the Wildcats' eighth on the road in the BIG EAST this season (8-2), the most since the 2015-16 edition also registered eight away from home.
"I think it shows this group's toughness and togetherness," said Villanova head coach
Kevin Willard, whose team bounced back from an 89-57 loss at St. John's Saturday night. "I think you've got to be a tough to win on the road, especially coming off a tough loss Saturday against a very good DePaul team."
The Wildcats held DePaul to 2-of-16 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc on the night (.125).
Defenses Had Upper Hand
Both squads had a tough time shaking loose at the offensive end in the opening 4:12. The Wildcats were 1-of-10 from the floor in that span while the Blue Demons committed three turnovers and their only point came at the free throw line. Villanova was up 2-1 at the first official timeout of the evening.
A 6-0 spurt from the Blue Demons in a span of 1:14 gave DePaul an 11-5 lead with 11:30 to play in the first half. After another transition basket, Villanova got a deep 3-pointer from
Bryce Lindsay. He was fouled on the attempt and sank the free throw to cut the margin to 13-9.
DePaul was able to get into transition again to expand its edge to 18-10 before an
Acaden Lewis bucket narrowed the deficit to 18-12.
"There was a little bit of an emotional thing for us," said Willard. "Malachi (Palmer) getting his first start, coming off a tough loss."
Closed the Half Strong
The Wildcats were able to finish the period with a flurry, thanks largely to their defense. Villanova limited DePaul to 1-of-8 shooting from the floor in the final minutes of the period and got some scoring from
Tyler Perkins to take a 26-24 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Villanova held that advantage while connecting on 8-of-29 field goal attempts (.276), including 2-of-11 from long distance (.182) in their first game without a key member of their starting lineup,
Matt Hodge. The redshirt freshman suffered a torn ACL in his right knee at St. John's last weekend and was replaced in the starting lineup by sophomore
Malachi Palmer.
Nova was buoyed by sinking 8-of-11 at the free throw line in the period, however, and owning a 20-18 edge on the backboards.
Perkins led Villanova with 11 points while
Duke Brennan carried a heavy load, adding five points to go with eight rebounds and strong interior defense.
"I think getting into the locker room with a lead, the guys felt like we were in a pretty good spot," Willard said.
Layden Blocker's six points topped DePaul over the first 20 minutes.
After Intermission
The Wildcats used crisp ball movement to create the kind of open looks that had been hard to come by in the opening stanza. A pair of
Devin Askew 3-pointers was part of a 16-8 surge over the first 5:21 of the second half that pushed Villanova's lead to 42-32.
Palmer also came to life at the offensive end, contributing all 10 of his points after the break. And Brennan was dynamic from start to finish.
Indeed, three of the most seasoned Wildcats – Perkins, Askew and Brennan – played major roles in the win.
"Duke and Dev in the second half were phenomenal," said Willard. "And Perk's been Perk all year."
What They Said
Brennan: "Losing Matt was very sad for us. As older guys, we understand what is required. But I have to give credit to the younger guys too, they took the keys of rebounding and physical tonight and did a great job with that. When you're younger in the game, that can be hard sometimes."
Brennan on the second half offensive outburst: "We just kind of found out what they were doing defensively, isolating on us. We were able to get it to me at the top of the key and we were able to get into some dribble down action."
