VILLANOVA, PA. – Playing their first game in the renovated Finneran Pavilion, the Villanova Wildcats opened the 2018-19 season with a 59-41 win over the visiting Hartford Hawks.
Hartford led 11-6 midway through the first quarter, when the Wildcats went on a 10-0 run to take a 16-11 lead after one quarter of play. Senior guard Adrianna Hahn led Villanova in the spurt with a three-point field goal, a pull-up jump shot and a free throw.
Villanova held a 20-16 advantage with 4:04 remaining in the second quarter, when junior Mary Gedaka made two free throws and sophomore forward Brianna Herlihy connected on a three from the corner. Hartford forward Ella Awobajo finished the first half scoring by making a 10-foor jumper. The Awobajo bucket sent the teams to halftime with Villanova holding a 25-18 lead.
Cold shooting doomed both sqauds in the first half. The Wildcats were 8-of-31 (.258) from the field in the opening 20 minutes and 2-of-17 from three (.117), while Hartford was 8-of-34 (.235) and 1-of-8 (.125).
After the Hawks cut the Villanova lead to 28-23 at the 6:25 mark of the third quarter, the Wildcats ran off seven straight points to take a 35-23 lead. The seven Villanova points included a lay-up by Gedaka, a three-ball by senior forward Jannah Tucker and a lay-up by Bridget Herlihy.
The Wildcats would lead 41-33 after three quarters of play.
Awobajo scored on a lay-up with 7:04 to play, before Villanova went on a 13-0 run to put the game away at 55-37 at the 2:05 mark. Following a Gedaka running lay-up, Tucker scored on a pull-up jump shot and Gedaka scored again on a lay-up to make the score 48-37. Junior guard Kelly Jekot continued the run with a short jumper and Hahn buried a trifecta from the corner.
In the win, Gedaka led the Wildcats with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and a 4-of-4 effort from the foul line. Tucker finished with 12 points and
Jekot added 10 points. Bridget Herlihy tallied a game-high 10 rebounds, while her sister Brianna Herlihy came off the bench to grab eight rebounds.
Hartford was paced by Sierra Dacosta who had 16 points and Awobajo who finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
For the game, the Wildcats were 21-of-57 from the field (36.8%), 5-of-30 from three (16.7%) and 12-of-16 from the free throw line (75.0%), while Hartford shot 16-of-65 from the floor (24.6%), 2-of-14 from long distance (14.3%) and 7-of-10 from the charity stripe (70.0%). The Wildcats owned a 51-37 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Friday, Nov. 16, when the Wildcats travel to Lehigh. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova improves to 31-19 all-time in season openers, including 25-16 under the direction of head coach Harry Perretta…Tonight was just the second all-time meeting between Villanova and Hartford…The Wildcats had 22 points in the paint in tonight's victory.
