VILLANOVA, PA. – In women's basketball action on Sunday afternoon, the Villanova Wildcats tallied a 51-49 win over the Providence Friars in the Big East opener for both teams. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 6-5 overall and 1-0 in Big East play, while the Friars fall to 9-4 overall and 0-1 in conference action.
 
A 15 foot jump shot by redshirt freshman Maddy Siegrist opened up the fourth quarter scoring and gave Villanova a 44-29 lead. Providence then responded with a 10-2 run to slice the Wildcat advantage to 46-39 with 4:01 to play. With the momentum on the Friars side, Siegrist connected on a three from the left wing to increase the Wildcat advantage to 49-39 at the 3:27 mark.
 
After each team failed to score over the next 1:07, the Friars made it a 49-41 game with 2:20 remaining on a 10-foot jumper by Kyra Spiwak. On Villanova's next possession, Bridget Herlihy misfired on a three, before the Friars cut the lead to five at 49-44 with 1:48 on the clock when Kaela Webb drained a triple from the corner.
 
Villanova ran a set play to perfection on its next trip down the court and senior forward Mary Gedaka scored on a backdoor lay-up off a nice feed from Herlihy to give her team a 51-44 advantage. The seven point lead was short lived, as Friar guard Chanell Williams made a short jumper in the lane with 1:02 to play.
 
The Friars then forced a turnover and made it a one possession game with 42 seconds remaining when Webb buried another triple. Villanova ran the shot clock down and attempted to make it a two possession contest, but Herlihy committed a turnover and the Friars had the ball with no timeouts and 12 seconds left.
 
Villanova had fouls to give and junior guard Cameron Onken was called for a common foul with three seconds on the clock. The Friars inbounded the ball to Williams who was tightly guarded by Wildcat junior guard Raven James. Williams was able to create a little separation, but her three-point attempt was off target and it came after the horn had sounded.
 
In the win, Gedaka led the way with a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds to go with four assists and a steal. Siegrist finished with 18 points and six rebounds, while James chipped in with seven points. Onken tallied two points, eight rebounds and five assists.
 
Providence was paced by Webb who had 13 points and Hevynne Bristow who came off the bench to score nine points.
 
For the game, Villanova was 20-of-58 from the field (34.5%), 8-of-30 from three-point range (26.7%) and 3-of-6 from the foul line (50.0%), while the Friars shot 38.6 percent from the floor (22-of-57), 25.0 percent from long distance (3-of-12) and 50.0 percent from the charity stripe (2-of-4). Providence owned a slight 38-37 advantage on the backboards.
 
Villanova returns to action on Tuesday, Dec. 31, when the Creighton Bluejays visit the Finneran Pavilion. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m.
 
NOTES: Today was Mary Gedaka's ninth career double-double…Villanova has won 27 of the last 33 match-ups against the Friars and lead the all-time series by a 49-27 count…Maddy Siegrist has scored double figures in 10 of the 11 games this season…The Wildcats improve to 3-2 at home this year with today's win…Today was just Villanova's second game in the last 18 days…Mary Gedaka went over the 1,200 career scoring mark with her 18 points in today's win. She now has 1,203 points which ranks 19^th on the school's all-time scoring list.