Box Score | Photo Gallery

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The Villanova Wildcats outscored Penn 24-10 over the final 9:54 of regulation to break open a tight defensive struggle and post a 62-47 victory over the Quakers in a Philadelphia Big Five game before a sellout crowd of 8,722 at the Palestra Saturday evening.

The victory gave the No. 5 ranked Wildcats a perfect 4-0 mark in the City Series for the second consecutive season and extended their winning streak in the Big Five to 11 games. It also improved their overall record to 17-1 (4-1 BIG EAST) and completed the program's first ever undefeated non-conference regular season (13-0).

Junior center Daniel Ochefu established a new career-high with 21 points, besting his 19-point standard set on Jan. 3 at Seton Hall. Ochefu was 8-of-12 from the field and collected 10 rebounds and dished out four assists.

Antonio Woods came off the bench to supply the Quakers (4-9 overall, 0-3 Big Five) with 18 points.

: "I want to congratulate Penn on a great game and great atmosphere," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright. "It's just a fun place to play and Penn played us really tough.

"We just scrapped for a road win. That was a really difficult environment against a really hungry team with a great game plan. We were able to just gut it out. It wasn't pretty and there really wasn't anything real positive that we did except for being mentally strong to keep playing every possession. Finally, we kind of broke through at the end."

Ochefu netted 15 of his points after intermission and it was his effectiveness in the middle that allowed Villanova to begin to solve the riddle of the Quakers' defense that had limited them to a season low 23 first half points and 30 percent shooting from the field.

"We started trying to run some sets to get the ball inside to Daniel in the second half," explained Wright. "We were trying in the first half but just weren't getting it inside."

Villanova had grabbed a quick 7-2 lead thanks to the work of Ochefu and Dylan Ennis, who scored all of those points. But Penn's defense and interior rebounding slowed the Wildcats and allowed the Quakers to tie the game at 19 with under three minutes remaining in the first period.

However, the Wildcats' defense was nearly as stingy as the Quakers' and it allowed VU to take a narrow 23-21 lead into the halftime break.

The teams traded flurries over the first 10 minutes of the second half, as Woods became a major scoring weapon for the Quakers. A 3-pointer by Woods with just under 10 minutes to play pumped energy into the crowd which sensed the chance for a signature upset from the Quakers.

But the Wildcats executed their next possession flawlessly when an Ochefu kick-out pass set up a 3-pointer by Ryan Arcidiacono. From there, the Wildcats clamped down on the Quakers at the defensive end and generated enough offense to pull away for the 62-47 win.

"I think Daniel got a little more aggressive posting up," stated Wright of his junior from Baltimore. "And we made some good entry passes to him. Kris Jenkins made the first one that really got (Daniel) going."

Villanova finished with 20 assists on its 23 baskets and committed only six turnovers. Junior Dylan Ennis added 10 points, five assists and four steals.

The Wildcats face a quick turnaround as they resume BIG EAST action on Monday evening at Georgetown (9 p.m./Fox Sports 1/610 WTEL AM).

Follow Villanova Basketball on social media

Twitter: @NovaMBB #NovaMBB

Instagram: @novambb