VILLANOVA, PA. – In women's basketball action on Sunday afternoon, the Villanova Wildcats tallied a 73-68 win over the visiting Seton Hall Pirates on Senior Day at the Finneran Pavilion. With the victory, Villanova improves to 17-10 overall and 8-8 in Big East play, while the Pirates fall to 14-14 overall and 6-11 in conference action.
Villanova led 19-11 after one quarter of play and started the second quarter on a 16-2 run to open up a 35-13 advantage midway through the second stanza. The Wildcats made four triples in the spurt with senior forward Jannah Tucker connecting on two of the four and senior guard Adrianna Hahn and junior guard Kelly Jekot making one each.
The Wildcats held a 39-19 lead with 48 seconds to play in the first half, when Seton Hall scored the final six points to slice the Villanova lead to 39-25 at halftime. Villanova shot 51.6 percent (16-of-31) in the opening half and had seven players reach the scoring column in the first 20 minutes of play.
After Seton Hall cut the Villanova lead to 43-35 with 5:59 remaining in the third quarter, the Wildcats went on a 14-4 run to open up a 57-39 advantage at the 1:13 mark. Junior forward Mary Gedaka registered six of the 14 points, while redshirt freshman Emily Esposito had a three-point field goal and a lay-up. The other three points came on a Hahn three-pointer.
The 14-4 spurt would propel the Wildcats to a 57-40 lead after three quarters.
Villanova led 68-48 with 5:04 to play in the fourth quarter, when Seton Hall out scored the Wildcats 17-2 over the next 4:33 cut the lead to 70-65 with 31 seconds left on the clock. Following a one-of-two effort from the foul line by Esposito that made it a 71-65 game, the Wildcats came up with a defensive stop and got the ball to Hahn who was fouled with 14 seconds to play. Hahn sank both free throws to ice the game and give her team a 73-65 lead.
In the win, Tucker scored a season-high 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and a 5-of-8 effort from three-point range. Gedaka recorded her third double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Hahn had 11 points and five assists. Esposito was the fourth Wildcat in double figures with 10 points off the bench.
Seton Hall was paced by Inja Butina who had a game-high 23 points to go with a game-best eight assists, while Shadeen Samuels tallied 18 points. Nicole Jimenez reached double figures with 11 points.
For the game, Villanova was 28-of-59 from the field (47.5%0, 12-of-35 from three-point range (34.3%) and 5-of-16 from the foul line (31.3%), while the Pirates shot 42.6 percent from the floor (26-of-61), 31.8 percent from behind the arc (7-of-22) and 81.8 percent from the charity stripe (9-of-11). Seton Hall owned a 42-28 advantage on the backboards. Villanova was charged with just nine turnovers.
Villanova returns to action on Friday, March 1, with a road game at Xavier. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova now leads the all-time series with Seton Hall by a 43-22 margin and have won 12 of the last 16 against the Pirates…Over the last four games, Jannah Tucker is 16-of-29 from three-point range for 55.1 percent…In the last 12 games, Mary Gedaka is 94-of-128 from the field 73.4 percent…Today marked the 15th time this year that Villanova has made double digit three-point field goals, including the last three games in a row…Adrianna Hahn went over the 300 made three-point field goal mark for her career in today's win and she now has 301 to her credit…The Wildcats had an assist on 19 of their 28 made field goals in today's victory.
