CHICAGO (AP) — Maddy Siegrist scored 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and No. 25 Villanova held off DePaul 71-64 on Wednesday night.
Siegrist, the nation’s leading scorer (28.5), pushed her career total for Big East Conference regular-season games to 1,311 to pass Tracy List of Providence (1988-92) and tie Holly Porter of Boston College (1993-97) for third in league history.
With her eighth 30-point game of the season Siegrist has moved within 76 points of Shelly Pennefather’s (1987) school record 2,408 points.
Christina Dalce added 13 points for the Wildcats (15-3, 6-1 Big East) and Maddie Burke had 11.
Aneesah Morrow scored 28 points and had 11 rebounds for the Blue Demons (10-7, 3-2) and Jorie Allen had 15.
Siegrist had a layup with 2:32 to go in the third quarter to put Villanova up 58-40. DePaul closed the quarter with eight straight points and Morrow’s jumper two minutes into the fourth quarter cut the deficit to 58-50.
Three times DePaul got within five points, but Siegrist scored the last six Villanova points to protect the lead.
Siegrist had 12 points and seven rebounds as the Wildcats took a 35-31 lead in a struggling first half. Morrow had half the Blue Demon field goals (seven) and almost half their points with 15.
Villanova is home against St. John’s, which dropped out of the rankings this week, on Saturday.
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP