VILLANOVA, PA. – Wildcat head coach Harry Perretta coached in his 162^nd and final Philadelphia Big 5 game on Wednesday evening, as Villanova claimed a share of the City Series title with a 70-58 win over the visiting Penn Quakers. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 10-7 overall and 3-1 in Big 5 play, while Penn falls to 10-3 on the year and 2-1 in City series action.
 
Perretta, who will retire at the end of the year after 42 seasons, finishes his Big 5 career with an impressive record of 122-40 (.753).  This is the 17^th all-time Big 5 title for Perretta and the Wildcats.
 
Penn scored the first four points of the second half to open up a 40-32 lead, before the Wildcats ran off eight straight points to tie the game at 40-40. Junior point guard Raven James started the spurt with a three from the corner and redshirt freshman forward Maddy Siegrist added a lay-up and three-ball of her own.
 
With the score tied at 43-43 late in the third quarter, Villanova scored three of the last four points of the quarter to take a 46-44 advantage after three. The three Wildcat points included a 15-foot jumper by Siegrist and a free throw by senior forward Mary Gedaka.
 
Villanova took control of the game over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, when the Wildcats used a decisive 12-1 run to take a 58-45 lead with 5:10 left on the clock. Siegrist had five in the spurt, while Gedaka added four and sophomore guard Sam Carangi drained a three.
 
After Penn freshman Kayla Padilla gave the Quakers life with four straight points to slice the Villanova advantage to 58-49 with 3:52 remaining, Gedaka put the game away for the Wildcats with five straight points on a conventional three-point play and a driving lay-up.
 
Gedaka and Siegrist were sensational in the fourth quarter combining to score 21 of the team's 24 points. Gedaka had 11 in the final stanza on 4-of-6 shooting, while Siegrist was 4-of-4 from the field for 10 points.
 
Villanova played excellent defense in the second half allowing Penn to score just 22 points in the third and fourth quarters combined. During a 9:26 stretch of the final two quarters Villanova held the Quakers without a field goal.
 
In the win, Siegrist led the Wildcats with a game-high 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including a 5-of-8 effort from three-point range. Gedaka finished with 21 points and nine rebounds. Senior forward Bridget Herlihy was the third Wildcat in double figures with 13 points. Junior guard Cameron Onken pulled-down a game-high 12 rebounds.
 
Penn was paced by Padilla who had 23 points and Eleah Parker who finished with 10 points.
 
For the game, Villanova was 26-of-57 from the field (45.6%), 11-of-27 from three-point range (40.7%) and 7-of-10 from the foul line (70.0%), while Penn shot 40.7 percent from the floor (24-of-59), 28.6 percent from long distance (6-of-21) and 44.4 percent from the charity stripe (4-of-9). Villanova owned a 38-31 advantage on the backboards.
 
Villanova returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 18, when the Wildcats will host the Georgetown Hoyas. Tip-off at the Finneran Pavilion is set for 6 p.m.
 
NOTES: The Wildcats improve to 44-3 all-time versus Penn…Villanova has won 16 of the last 17 versus the Quakers…The 'Cats are 31-6 in their last 37 Big 5 games…Villanova has won six of its last eight…This was the fourth time this season that Mary Gedaka and Maddy Siegrist have each scored 20 points in the same game…Maddy Siegrist now has nine games of 20 points or more…Tonight was the 18^th, 20-point game of Mary Gedaka's career…Mary Gedaka went over the 1,300 career scoring mark tonight (1,307 career points) and moved past Helen Koskinen and Katie Davis and into 14th on the school's all-time scoring list…Villanova is the only team besides Princeton to score 70 points against Penn this season.