College Basketball

Bryce Lindsay & Tyler Perkins leads Villanova to comeback win over DePaul on New Years Eve

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Published31 Dec 2025

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Radnor, PA: We are hours away from closing 2025 & ringing in 2026, but College Basketball keeps rolling, run & Conference play gets going, and we had a good Big East Battle as the Villanova Wildcats would host the DePaul Blue Demons from Finneran Pavilion. Villanova comes into the game at 10-2 & 1-0 in Big East play and off a win over Seton Hall, while the Blue Demons made their way to the Main Line with 8-5 & 0-2 in Big East and off a loss to UConn.

Lineup:

How the game went:

The Wildcats would get the scoring party started with 3 3-pointers & DePaul would respond right away & DePaul would taking their first lead of the game at 13-12 heading into the 1st media timeout. There would be multiple times that the Blue Demons would have a response to what the Wildcats were showing. There were at least 4 big dunks that DePaul would have in the 1st half & they would have a 14-2 scoring run. At one point, the Blue Demons would have a lead of 9 at 30-21.  The crowd at Finneran Pavilion just could not believe what they saw & how DePaul made things challenging as the Blue Demons took a 32-28 lead into halftime. Based on what we saw, what could Villanova do to get back into the game?

Tyler Perkins would start the half for the Wildcats with three 3-pointers, but DePaul would have an answer. At one point, the Blue Demons would have seven dunks & the crowd at the Finn does not like what they are seeing, as the Wildcats would be down 42-36. The shot selection for the Wildcats has been questionable as the Blue Demon got the lead up to 50-40 with 10:54 left in 2nd half. Bryce Lindsay would have back-to-back 3s to get the crowd back into the game & at the same time cut the DePaul lead down to 2 at 50-48, but the Blue Demons responded with 3 to stop whatever run the Wildcats had. Tyler Perkins would hit 3 to even things at 56. A few minutes later, the Villanova Wildcats would retake the lead on a 3-pointer from Devin Askew for a 59-58 lead with 5:03 left & down the stretch, the Wildcats changed their defense & DePaul just could not finish their shots that were dropping for them in the first half.

Bryce Lindsay & Tyler Perkins got the spark for the Wildcats that made their comeback. This was the type of Big East game that you will see in conference play, where it would come down to the final seconds and make the other team work harder than you.

As the final horn sounds, you have to like the effort how Villanova was able to crawl out of being down by 10 in the 2nd half to win this game 71-66 & to be 2-0 in Big East play.

Postgame:

Villanova Coach Kevin Williard:

DePaul Coach Chris Holtmann

Final Numbers:

What is next:
Villanova now goes to 11-2 & 2-0 in Big East play & will now prepare for Battle on Saturday at Noon on the road against Butler. With a win on Saturday, you could possibly see Villanova in the AP Top 25 Poll on Monday.