DePaul comes close but can't get 1st Big East win

As the final seconds ticked away in the first half Wednesday night, all seemed forgiven and forgotten.

DePaul's players and fans stood and cheered and calculated the possibilities as the Blue Demons jogged off with their first Big East halftime lead of the season.

Against 10th-ranked Villanova, no less.

Then came the Wildcats' vicious second-half run, which turned a 10-point Blue Demons lead into a 12-point deficit and had the DePaul unfaithful rehashing their usual insults for coach Jerry Wainwright.

But on the strength of Will Walker's 4 consecutive 3-pointers, DePaul snapped back within 2 points at the Allstate Arena.

The rally brought everybody to their feet - and brought Villanova point guard Scottie Reynolds to the fore.

Reynolds bounced in two remarkable slashes to the hoop and swished 4 straight free throws in the final 2:05 to ensure Villanova's 74-72 Big East victory before a vocal 5,000 in Rosemont.

Wildcats coach Jay Wright was kind enough to stamp a giant asterisk on DePaul's 15th consecutive loss.

"Come on, we got lucky," Wright said. "They outplayed us. They outplayed us.

"Scottie made two incredible plays or we're not even talking about this. It wasn't like we got stops. He just made a couple incredible plays."

Villanova (23-5, 11-4) took a 60-48 lead with 6:20 to go that appeared insurmountable, seeing as how DePaul (8-20, 0-15) had managed just 1 basket in the previous six minutes.

But Walker drilled a 3-pointer that triggered something in the Demons.

Villanova's Reggie Redding drove for a layup, but then Walker (23 points) reeled off 3 more 3-pointers to slash the deficit to 62-60 with 2:47 to play.

"Sometimes I feel like when I catch my rhythm, I feel like I can't miss," said Walker, who hit a career-high six 3-pointers. "It all came from the delivery of the ball from the point guards. And Coach set up some good plays to get me to run off picks after I hit the first one."

Then Reynolds took over.

With the shot clock getting near zero, Reynolds slashed to the basket and made a spinning lefty layup to put 'Nova ahead 64-60.

After a Jeremiah Kelly putback, Reynolds answered with a driving, spinning, hanging fadeaway in the lane.

DePaul pulled within 2 points once more, but Reynolds cashed 2 free throws and the Demons missed 2 shots to fall out of range.

Dar Tucker (16 points), who missed his first 10 3-pointers, tossed in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Demons their closest Big East loss of the year.

Next up? St. John's (13-15, 4-11) comes to Rosemont for DePaul's final home game.

"Our challenge is, 'Can we start Saturday's game the way we finished this one?' " Wainwright said. "That's what they'll hear the next couple days."