CHICAGO _ The minus-35 wind chill outside was not fit for man or beast, but the weather did not affect the shooting of Villanova and DePaul, as they took the court Wednesday night at Wintrust Arena for a Big East basketball game.
The 14th-ranked Wildcats had an especially hot stretch to start the second half, taking a 15-point lead and keeping a comfortable margin throughout before holding off a late rally to defeat the Blue Demons, 86-74, for their ninth consecutive victory.
The Cats (17-4, 8-0 Big East) were led by Eric Paschall with 20 points and Phil Booth with 19 and eight assists. Saddiq Bey added 16 and 11 rebounds. The team shot 50 percent in the second half and 47 percent for the game, knocking down 15 3-point baskets.
"We know we have really good shooters, but even good shooters miss, so we're never discouraged with a miss," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "I thought we took one bad 3. Other than that, I thought we took all good 3s. That's a big part of our offensive scheme, and we want to take advantage of it."
After taking a 40-36 lead at the half, Villanova led by as many as 17 points in the second half, at 60-43, when Paschall knocked down a 3-pointer with 14 minutes, 15 seconds to play. The margin stayed pretty consistent, and the Cats led, 70-55, with 8:42 to play after a Paschall drive down the lane.
"I thought that was very important," Booth said about coming out strong in the second half. "They came out in the first half and went pound for pound with us. We just tried to come out in the second half and tried to get ourselves going and make some stops defensively."
But the Blue Demons (11-9, 3-6), who shot 52 percent in the second half, ran off a 7-2 spurt to get to within 10, 72-62, on a layup by Femi Olujobi with 5:13 to play. DePaul kept the heat on and cut the deficit to seven, 78-71, on a three-ball by Max Strus with 2:51 to play.
The Wildcats, despite missing the front ends of two 1-and-1's, got a dunk from Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree and two free throws by Booth to take an 85-74 lead with 45 seconds left to seal the win.
Olujobi led the Blue Demons with 20 points off the bench, and Eli Cain added 17.
The Wildcats were led by the scoring of Booth (12 points) and Paschall (10) in the first half, then came out strong in the second half. They outscored the Blue Demons, 11-2 in the opening 2:47, making four of their first five shots, including a trio of 3-pointers, to take a 51-38 lead.
Villanova took its largest lead of the first half following a 6-0 run that featured two baskets by Booth and one from Paschall, making the score 31-22 with just over 8 minutes remaining. But the Wildcats hit only three of 14 shots for the rest of the half, and the Blue Demons chipped away at the deficit.
But after DePaul completed a 9-2 run on Strus' 3-point basket that closed the gap to 33-31, the Cats got two free throws from Paschall and a 3 from Joe Cremo to get the lead back to 7. Cain knocked down a 3-pointer just before the first-half buzzer, and the 'Nova lead at the half was down to four points.
