February 6, 1999
JAMAICA, N.Y. - In women's basketball action on Saturday, Feb. 6 at Alumni Hall in Jamaica, N.Y., the Villanova Wildcats defeated the St. John's Red Storm by a score of 54-50.
With the win, the Wildcats improve to 11-10 overall and 7-6 in Big East play, while St. John's falls to 10-15 overall and 5-9 in conference play. The win was Villanova's fourth in the last five games.
Villanova gained control of the game at the 5:37 mark of the first half, when the Cats went on a 14-4 run to take a 28-14 lead. The Wildcats would go to intermission with a 31-19 advantage.
In the first stanza, Villanova was paced by sophomore guard Lauren Pellicane and junior guard Mary Beth who each had six points on two three-point field goals. Guard Telisha Warner led the Red Storm in the first half with six points. Villanova shot 47.8 percent from the field in the first half, while St. John's shot 24.2 percent from the floor.
St. John's stepped up the defensive play in the second half, holding Villanova to just seven points in the first 11 minutes and close the Wildcat margin to just 38-36 at the 9:31 mark. From this point, Villanova would use a 6-0 run to increase the lead to 45-38 with 5:34 left in regulation.
With the Wildcats leading 50-45 at the 1:17 mark, St. John's would get two free throws and a field goal by Tanya Mrdjen to cut the Villanova advantage to one at 50-49 with 12 seconds left on the clock. At the 11 second mark, Pellicane converted both ends of a one-and-one, giving the Cats a 52-49 lead. Senior forward Jenn Sliwa would put the game away when she made two free throws with just four seconds remaining to give the Wildcats a 54-50 victory.
Villanova was led by Pellicane who scored a game-high 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a 4-of-6 effort from three-point range. Junior Jenea Skeeters and sophomore Brandi Barnes each tallied nine points for Villanova. Sliwa grabbed a team-high seven rebounds for the Wildcats.
St. John's was paced by Ebony Dickinson who had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Wildcats will return to action on Wednesday, Feb. 10 when they host No. 7 ranked Notre Dame at 7:30 p.m.
