MILWAUKEE, WISC. – In Big East women's basketball action on Sunday afternoon, the Villanova Wildcats traveled to Milwaukee where they fell to the Marquette Golden Eagles by a score of 57-52. With the loss, Villanova falls to 11-9 overall and 5-4 in Big East Conference play, while Marquette improves to 15-5 overall and 6-3 in conference action.
With the score tied at 38-38 with 2:48 remaining in the third quarter, Villanova redshirt freshman forward Maddy Siegrist scored five straight points to give the Wildcats a 43-38 lead. The five points included a three-ball from the right wing and a 15-foot jumper. On Marquette's next possession after Villanova went up five, Golden Eagle guard Isabelle Spingola drained a triple to make it a 43-41 game. Marquette closed out the third quarter scoring when Selena Lott scored on a short jumper in the lane. The Lott bucket sent the game to the fourth quarter tied at 43-43.
The game was even at 45-45 when the Golden Eagles ran off six straight points to open-up a 51-45 lead with 7:10 remaining. Lott led the Marquette charge by scoring four of the six points.
Wildcat senior forward Mary Gedaka ended the Marquette spurt with a driving lay-up that sliced the Golden Eagle advantage to 51-47 at the 6:51 mark. After neither team was able to score for the next 1:46, Marquette went up 53-47 on a lay-up by Lauren Van Kleunen with 5:05 to play.
Villanova ended a 2:30 scoring drought when Siegrist scored on a driving lay-up that made it a 53-49 game with 3:49 remaining. On the game's next possession, Marquette made it a 55-49 game on a basket by Van Kleunen.
Van Kleunen made one of two from the line to increase the Marquette lead to 56-49 with 37 seconds to go, before Siegrist drained her fifth three-point field goal of the game to cut the advantage to 56-52 with 12 seconds on the clock. Following a one-of-two effort at the foul line by Marquette freshman Jordan King that made it a 57-52 game, Villanova turned the ball over with five seconds remaining and the Golden Eagles secured the victory.
In the loss, Siegrist led all scorers with 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including a 5-of-10 effort from three-point range. Gedaka finished with 16 points, seven assists and three rebounds, while Bridget Herlihy made three triples for nine points.
Marquette was paced by Van Kleunen who registered a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Spingola also had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, while Altia Anderson added 10 points.
For the game, Villanova was 20-of-58 from the field (34.5%), 8-of-29 from three-point range (27.6%) and 4-of-4 from the foul line, while Marquette shot 40.7 percent from the floor (24-of-59), 25.0 percent from long distance (2-of-8) and 53.8 percent from the charity stripe (7-of-13). Marquette owned a 47-28 advantage on the backboards. Villanova was charged with just nine turnovers.
Villanova returns to action on Friday, Jan. 31, when the St. John's Red Storm visit the Finneran Pavilion. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
NOTES: Maddy Siegrist now has a Big East leading 10, 20-point games…Mary Gedaka moved past Caroline Coyer and Denise Dillon and into 11th place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,356 career points…Today was the 17th career double figure scoring game for Mary Gedaka.
