Box Score March 23, 2017 Final Stats
HARRISONBURG, VA. - In the third round of the WNIT on Thursday night at James Madison, the Villanova Wildcats tallied a thrilling 69-67 overtime win over the James Madison Dukes. With the victory, Villanova improves to 19-14 overall, while the Dukes finish the year at 26-9.
The Wildcats will now advance to the quarterfinal round of the WNIT and will play at Indiana on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. The winner will advance to the semifinals against either Virginia Tech or Michigan.
Villanova trailed 56-52 with 50 seconds remaining in regulation when Wildcat sophomore forward Jannah Tucker drained a three from the top of the key to make it a 56-55 game. After the Wildcats got a defensive stop on the game's next possession, Wildcat junior guard Alex Louin dribbled the ball up the court and went straight to the basket where she gave Villanova a 57-56 advantage with 14 seconds on the clock with a driving lay-up.
James Madison had a good look to take the lead but Tasia Butler's lay-up would not fall and Villanova grabbed the rebound with 1.6 seconds to go. Following two free throws by Tucker that increased Villanova's lead to 59-56, the Dukes called timeout and advanced the ball to the front court. James Madison ran its sideline out of bounds play to perfection and senior guard Precious Hall buried a triple as time expired to send the game to overtime tied at 59-59.
Villanova scored the first four points of the extra session on a tip offensive rebound by senior forward Samantha Wilkes and a lay-up by junior center Megan Quinn. The Quinn bucket gave Villanova a 63-59 lead with 3:35 to play.
The Dukes scored their first points of overtime when Hall connected on a three-ball to slice the Villanova lead to one at 63-62 at the 2:31 mark. After neither team was able to score for the next 1:58, Tucker drained a three to put the Wildcats up 66-62 with 33 seconds remaining.
Following a Hall lay-up that pulled the Dukes within two at 66-64, Louin was fouled with 20 seconds on the clock. Louin calmly drained both foul shots and Villanova held a 68-64 advantage with 20 seconds left.
After Hailee Barron made a three to make it a 68-67 game, Villanova inbounded the ball to Louin who was fouled with 0.08 seconds to play. Louin made the first, but missed the second. The Dukes were out of timeouts and could not get a shot off as time expired.
Villanova shot 13-of-26 (50.0%) from the field in the first half, including a 9-of-18 effort from three-point range en route to a 36-25 halftime lead.
Tucker led the Wildcats in the win with a career-high 22 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including a 4-of-10 effort from three-point range. Louin finished with 15 points, five rebounds and three assists. Wilkes added six points and a game-high tying nine rebounds, while freshman Kelly Jekot had nine points on three triples.
Hall led the Dukes with a game-high 36 points and nine rebounds. Kamiah Smalls had eight points and nine rebounds.
For the game, Villanova shot 24-of-63 from the field (38.1%), 11-of-31 from three-point range (35.5%) and 10-of-11 from the foul line (90.9%), while James Madison shot 36.6 percent from the floor (26-of-71), 33.3 percent from long distance (6-of-18) and 50.0 percent from the charity stripe (9-of-18). The Dukes owned a 50-36 advantage on the backboards.
NOTES: Tonight was the first-ever meeting between Villanova and JMUââ'¬Â¦Alex Louin now has a team-high 23 double figure scoring games this season...Villanova improves to 4-0 in overtime games this yearââ'¬Â¦The Wildcats are 30-of-34 from the foul line in the last two gamesââ'¬Â¦Tonight was the 12th time this year that Villanova has made double digit threesââ'¬Â¦Alex Louin went over the 100 assist mark for the year.
