VILLANOVA, PA. -- The Villanova Wildcats shot 50.0 percent from the field to earn a 66-54 home win over the visiting Xavier Musketeers. With the victory, Villanova has won five of its last seven and improves to 9-7 overall and 4-2 in Big East play, while the Musketeers fall to 2-14 overall and 1-4 in league action.
Villanova started quickly and raced to a 16-2 lead with redshirt freshman Maddy Siegrist scoring eight of the 16 Wildcat points. Th Wildcats would use the quick start to propel them to a 21-6 lead after one. Shooting was the story of the opening quarter, as Villanova was 8-of-14 for 57.1 percent and Xavier was just 2-of-16 for 12.5 percent.
The Wildcats controlled the second quarter and never led by less than 14 the entire period. Each team was 5-of-12 from the field in the second stanza and Villanova went to intermission with a 34-17 advantage.
After a 10-foot jump shot by senior forward Mary Gedaka gave Villanova a 48-26 lead with 4:23 remaining in the third quarter, the Musketeers used a 12-2 spurt the rest of the quarter to slice the Wildcat advantage to 50-38 at the end of three quarters. A'riana Gray led the Xavier charge with six of the 12 points.
Siegrist scored on a post move in the paint on Villanova's first possession of the fourth quarter to make it a 52-38 game, before the Musketeers responded with five straight points to cut the deficit to single digits at 52-43.
With the momentum on Xavier's side, Siegrist drained a three from the right wing to increase her team's lead to 55-43 at the 4:26 mark. The Musketeers came right back with a three of their own when Lauren Wasylson connected on a triple from the corner and it was back to a nine point game at 55-46. Siegrist answered again on Villanova's next possession when she made another three and Villanova led 58-46 with 3:42 on the clock.
Following a missed shot by each team, Xavier made it a 58-49 game on a three-ball by Aaliyah Dunham with 2:56 to play. Villanova got the ball to Siegrist on its next possession and she was fouled on a drive to the basket. Siegrist split a pair at the line and the Wildcats held a 59-49 lead with 2:22 remaining. After the Wildcats got a defensive stop on Xavier's next possession, Villanova increased its lead to 61-49 on a lay-up by Gedaka.
Villanova went 5-of-8 from the foul line over the final 1:02 to seal the victory.
In the win, Siegrist tallied her fourth straight double-double with 23 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. Gedaka finished with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and a 6-of-8 effort from the foul line. Senior forward Bridget Herlihy added eight points, six assists, three rebounds and a block.
Xavier was paced by Gray who was credited a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Carries Gross came off the bench to score 10 points.
For the game, Villanova was 23-of-46 from the field (50.0%), 4-of-15 from three-point range (26.7%) and 16-of-24 from the foul line (66.7%), while the Musketeers shot 32.8 percent from the floor (19-of-58), 23.8 percent from long distance (5-of-21) and 73.3 percent from the charity stripe (11-of-15). The Wildcats owned a 38-29 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Wednesday, Jan. 15, when the Penn Quakers visit the Finneran Pavilion. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova leads the all-time series with Xavier by a 13-1 count…Maddy Siegrist now has a Big East leading seven double-doubles on the season…Today was the eighth 20-point game of the season for Maddy Siegrist…Mary Gedaka has 17 career 20-point games and 67 double figure scoring games to her credit…Maddy Siegrist has tallied 52 rebounds over the last four games for an average of 13.0 per game during that stretch…Mary Gedaka moved past Liad Suez-Karni and Nikki Benedix and into 16th place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,286 points.
