Final Stats

VILLANOVA, Pa. - The Villanova Wildcats returned to their winning ways on Friday, Jan. 5, with a 75-57 home win over the visiting Xavier Musketeers. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 12-2 overall and 2-2 in Big East play, while Xavier falls to 8-6 on the year and 1-2 in league play.

Behind the play of sophomore guard Kelly Jekot and junior guard Adrianna Hahn Villanova raced to a 15-7 lead midway through the opening quarter. Hahn scored the first five points of the game on a three-ball and a lay-up, while Jekot scored six of the first 15 points on a conventional three-point play and a triple of her own.

The Musketeers would finish the quarter on a mini 6-2 run to slice the Villanova lead to 17-13 after one.

After Xavier scored the first basket of the second quarter on a lay-up by Imani Partlow, the Wildcats responded with a three by sophomore guard Grace Stant and a lay-up by Jekot to increase the lead to 22-15.

A three by Wildcat senior center Megan Quinn at the 2:27 mark gave Villanova its largest lead of the opening half at 29-20. The Musketeers answered by scoring four of the final five points of the half and Villanova went to intermission with a 30-24 halftime advantage.

Villanova used a sizzling third quarter shooting effort and outscored Xavier, 27-18, en route to a 57-42 lead after three quarters of play. The Wildcats were 10-of-14 from the field in the third stanza for 71.4 percent, including a 3-of-7 effort from downtown. Jekot was sensational in the third quarter with 11 points on 3-of-3 shooting from the field, 2-of-2 from three-point range and 3-of-5 from the foul line.

Following a Mary Gedaka lay-up on the first possession of the fourth quarter that increased the Villanova lead to 59-42, Xavier scored four straight points to make it a 59-46 game. On Villanova's next trip down the court, Gedaka grabbed an offensive rebound to keep possession of the ball and the Wildcats made Xavier pay when sophomore forward Bridget Herlihy drained a three from the left wing to give her team a 62-46 lead at the 7:08 mark.

Two free throws by Xavier guard Princess Stewart made it a 62-48 game, before Villanova put the game away on another three by Herlihy. Folowing the Herlihy trifecta, Xavier would not get within 16 the rest of the way.

In the win, Jekot led the Wildcats with a game-high 21 points to go with a career-high tying six assists and five rebounds. She was 6-of-14 from the field, 3-of-7 from long distance and 6-of-8 from the foul line. Quinn scored 10 points, while Hahn added nine points. Herlihy had eight points and a career-high six rebounds, and senior guard Alex Louin finished with eight points and a career-best eight assists.

Xavier was paced by Jada Byrd with 12 points and Partlow who finished with 11 points.

For the game, Villanova was 27-of-55 from the field (49.1%), 10-of-26 from three-point range (38.5%) and 11-of-16 from the foul line (68.8%), while Xavier shot 39.6 percent from the floor (19-of-48), 26.7 percent from behind the arc (4-of-15) and 88.2 percent from the charity stripe (15-of-17). Villanova owned a 31-28 advantage on the backboards. The Wildcats were charged with just seven turnovers.

Villanova returns to action on Wednesday, Jan. 10, with a road game at Georgetown. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.

NOTES: Villanova now leads the all-time series with Xavier by a 9-1 countââ'¬Â¦The Wildcats are 6-0 all-time versus Xavier at homeââ'¬Â¦Kelly Jekot now has four 20-point games this seasonââ'¬Â¦In four home games this year, Kelly Jekot has scored 75 points for an average of 18.7 points per gameââ'¬Â¦The Wildcats improve top 3-1 at home this seasonââ'¬Â¦Tonight was the ninth game this year that Villanova has had a single digit turnover gameââ'¬Â¦With her eight points tonight Alex Louin went over the 1,200 career point mark and now has 1,201 career points.