VILLANOVA, PA. – In women's basketball action on Friday afternoon, the Villanova Wildcats suffered a 58-41 home loss to the visiting Butler Bulldogs. With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 8-7 overall and 3-2 in Big East play, while Butler improves to 10-5 overall and 2-2 in conference action.

With the score tied at 8-8 late in the first quarter, the Wildcats scored six of the final 10 points of the quarter to lead 14-12 at the end of one. The six points included back-to-back lay-ups by senior forward Mary Gedaka and a 15-foot jumper by redshirt freshman guard Kenzie Gardler.

Butler took control of the game early in the second quarter, when the Bulldogs started the second stanza on an 13-0 run to open up a 25-14 lead. Five different Butler players scored in the spurt highlighted by five points and a three-ball from Kristen Spolyar.

Villanova went 1-of-15 from the field and managed just four points in the second quarter. Butler took advantage of the Wildcat shooting woes and went to intermission with 32-18 lead. The Bulldogs were 7-of-16 from the field in the second for 43.8 percent.

After Butler built a 21 point third quarter advantage at 39-18, the Wildcats used a 12-4 spurt to slice the Bulldog advantage to 43-30 at the end of three quarters. Villanova hit three triples in the run with Sam Carangi, Bridget Herlihy and Brooke Mullin connected on one each.

Two free throws by Katherine Strong increased the Butler to 50-34 with 6:23 remaining in regulation, before Carangi connected on the two straight threes to pull the Wildcats within 10 at 50-40. Villanova came up with three straight defensive stops and had a chance to cut the lead to single digits, but the Wildcats misfired on three straight field goal attempts, including two from long distance.

In the loss, Siegrist tallied her third straight double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Carangi had a career-high nine points on a career-best three, three-point field goals.

Butler was paced by Spolyar who had a game-high 15 points and Strong who finished with 14 points. Shae Brey added a game-best 13 rebounds.

For the game, Villanova was 13-of-58 from the field (22.4%), 8-of-31 from three-point range (25.8%) and 7-of-14 from the foul line (50.0%), while Butler shot 33.3 percent from the floor (18-of-54), 27.3 percent from long distance (3-of-11) and 82.6 percent from the charity stripe (19-of-23). Butler owned a 50-35 advantage on the backboards.

Villanova returns to action on Sunday, Jan. 12, when the Xavier Musketeers visit the Finneran Pavilion. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m.

NOTES: Maddy Siegrist leads the BIG EAST Conference with six double-doubles…Siegrist has pulled-down 36 rebounds in the last three games…Villanova now leads the all-time series with Butler by a 9-5 margin…Over 3,000 grade school students attended today's game for the annual Education Day program.