VILLANOVA – The Villanova Wildcats improved to 3-0 at home with a 67-46 win over the visiting Princeton Tigers on Wednesday evening. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 4-2 overall, while Princeton falls to 1-7 on the season. The win also marks head coach Harry Perretta 750th career win who is now 750-465 in 41 years as the Wildcat head coach.
Villanova led 24-17 midway through the second quarter, when the Wildcats scored six straight points to open up a 30-17 advantage. The six Villanova points included three-points field goals by senior guard Adrianna Hahn and junior forward Mary Gedaka.
The Wildcats would use the momentum en route to a 34-22 halftime lead.
Villanova used a 12-4 run in the third quarter to take a 49-29 advantage at the 3:28 mark. Hahn led the charge with a three and a lay-up, while junior guard Kelly Jekot had a 10-foot jumper and junior forward Bridget Herlihy added a three-ball from the wing.
Following the 12-4 spurt, the Tigers scored the last six points of the third quarter to slice the Villanova lead to 49-35 after three quarters.
The Wildcats put the game away by scoring the first six points of the fourth quarter to open up a 55-35 lead. Hahn had two lay-ups and Gedaka scored on a driving lay-up to account for the six points.
Princeton would not get within 18 the rest of the way and Villanova would cruise to the 21 point victory.
In the win, Hahn scored a game-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including a 3-of-6 effort from three-point range. Gedaka added a double-double with 15 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Bridget Herlihy came off the bench to register nine points and six rebounds.
Princeton was paced Gabrielle Rush who had 13 points.
For the game, Villanova shot 41.8 percent from the field (28-of-67), 29.0 percent from three-point range (9-of-31) and 50.0 percent from the foul line (2-of-4), while the Tigers were 20-of-58 from the floor (34.5%), 3-of-17 from behind the arc (17.6%) and 3-of-5 from the charity stripe (60.0%). The Wildcats held a 39-32 advantage on the backboards. Villanova was charged with just eight turnovers.
Villanova returns to action on Sunday, Dec. 2, when the Wildcats travel to Saint Joseph's. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
NOTES: The Wildcats now lead the all-time series over Princeton by a 12-6 count…Villanova improves to 64-10 all-time versus Ivy League competition…Adrianna Hahn move past Lauren Burford and into third place on Villanova's all-time made three-point field goal list with 243…Mary Gedaka is 35-of-48 from the field for .729 after six games.
