VILLANOVA, PA. – The Villanova Wildcats tallied their fifth straight victory with a 62-56 home win over the visiting Georgia Lady Bulldogs. With the win, Villanova improves to 8-2 on the season, while Georgia falls to 6-4 on the season.
Villanova led 21-17 midway through the second quarter, when the Wildcats scored five straight points to open up a 26-17 lead. The five points included a 10-foot jumper by senior guard Adrianna Hahn and a three from the corner by junior guard Kelly Jekot.
After Georgia scored the game's next five points to make it a 26-23 game, Wildcat senior forward Grace Stant buried a triple from the wing and redshirt freshman forward Emily Esposito drained a turnaround jump shot in the lane. The Esposito bucket gave Villanova a 31-23 halftime lead.
Two free throws by Hahn gave the Wildcats their largest lead of the contest at 45-31 with 4:10 to play in the third quarter. With Villanova ready to take total control of the game, Georgia responded with a 10-2 spurt to slice the Wildcat advantage to 47-41 with 27 seconds remaining. Villanova took momentum into the fourth quarter when senior forward Jannah Tucker connected on a three from the corner just before the third quarter buzzer to give her team a 50-41 lead after three.
The Lady Bulldogs cut the lead to single digits at 52-43 with 7:25 on the clock on a lay-up by Stephanie Paul. Villanova then pushed the lead back to 12 at 55-43 at the 5:38 mark on a deep three by Hahn.
Leading 57-46 with 2:48 to play, Jekot made a three from the left wing to push the Wildcat lead to 60-46. Georgia made one last rally and ran off eight straight points to cut the Villanova advantage to 60-54 with 1:06 remaining. The Wildcats then ran the shot clock down and increased the lead to 62-54 at the 43 second mark on a lay-up by junior forward Mary Gedaka.
In the win, Jekot scored a game-high 20 points to go with a team-high seven rebounds and two assists. She was 7-of-10 from the field, 3-of-4 from three-point range and 3-of-3 from the foul line. Hahn finished with 11 points, while Tucker and Esposito had eight points each.
Georgia was paced by Paul with 19 points and Gabby Connally who had 12 points.
For the game, Villanova was 23-of-52 from the field (44.2%), 9-of-21 from three-point range (42.9%) and 7-of-7 from the foul line (100.0%), while the Lady Bulldogs shot 43.4 percent from the floor (23-of-53), 12.5 percent from long distance (1-of-8) and 60.0 percent from the charity stripe (9-of-15). Georgia owned a 34-29 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 29, when the Butler Bulldogs visit the Finneran Pavilion for the Big East opener. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.
NOTES: The Wildcats improve to 20-4 versus non conference opponents over the last two seasons…Villanova is now 5-0 at home this year…Kelly Jekot now has eight career 20-point games, including three this season…Adrianna Hahn is 15-of-31 from three (.483) over the last five games…Tonight was just the second all-time meeting between Villanova and Georgia. The series is now tied at 1-1…Villanova improves to 5-9 all-time versus SEC competition
