QUEENS, N.Y. – The Villanova Wildcats tallied their fourth win in the last five games with a 67-62 overtime win at St. John's. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 8-6 overall and 3-1 in Big East play, while the Red Storm falls to 10-5 overall and 3-1 in league action.

With the game tied at 52-52 with 2:24 remaining in the fourth quarter, Wildcat senior forward Mary Gedaka scored on a driving lay-up off an isolation play and the Wildcats led 54-52. After each team failed to score on their next possession, Gedaka gave Villanova a 56-52 lead on a 10-foot jumper at the 1:00 mark.

Following a Red Storm turnover, the Wildcats had a chance to increase their lead with 44 seconds to play, but Gedaka missed two free throws. St. John's called timeout and advanced the ball to the front court where they ran an out of bounds play and scored on a lay-up by Tiana England that cut the Villanova advantage to 56-54 with 37 seconds remaining.

Villanova then committed back-to-back turnovers that allowed St. John's to tie the score at 56-56 and get the ball back and hold for the last shot to win the game. The Red Storm let the clock run down and England attacked the rim, but her running one hander was off target and the game was headed to overtime.

Back-to-back lay-ups by senior forward Bridget Herlihy and Gedaka gave the Wildcats an early 60-56 lead in the extra session. St. John's responded with two straight buckets on fast break lay-ups by Alissa Alston and England and the game was even at 60-60 with 1:51 to play.

On the game's next possession, Villanova went inside to Herlihy who connected on a nice post move to break the tie and give the Wildcats a 62-60 advantage. The lead was short lived, as Red Storm forward Raven Farley tied the game at 62-62 with a basket in the paint at the 40 second mark.

Villanova ran a deliberate offensive set on the next trip down the court and with 16 seconds remaining, junior point guard Raven James found Gedaka at the top of the key where she drained a straight away three to put the Wildcats up 65-62.

Following the Gedaka triple, St. John's called timeout and advanced the ball. The Red Storm worked the ball around before Alisha Kebbe attempted the game-tying three that was off target. James grabbed the defensive rebound for the Wildcats and sealed the game with two free throws with three seconds remaining.

In the win, redshirt freshman forward Maddy Siegrist recorded her Big East leading fifth double-double with 22 points and 15 rebounds. Gedaka registered her second straight 20-point game with 21 points and six rebounds, while Herlihy finished with 11 points. James added seven points, six assists and four rebounds, while junior guard Cameron Onken chipped in with six points and four assists.

St. John's was paced by England with 21 points and nine rebounds and Qadashah Hoppe who tallied 14 points. Alston was the third Red Storm player in double figures with 10 points.

For the game, Villanova was 27-of-60 from the field (45.0%), 9-of-30 from three-point range (30.0%) and 4-of-7 from the foul line (57.1%), while St. John's shot 34.2 percent from the floor (25-of-73), 28.6 percent from long distance (6-of-21) and 75.0 percent from the charity stripe (6-of-8). The Red Storm owned a slight 41-40 advantage on the backboards.

Villanova returns to action on Friday, Jan. 10, when the Butler Bulldogs visit the Finneran Pavilion. Tip-off is set for 11:30 a.m.

NOTES: Today was the 16th career 20-point game for Mary Gedaka…With her 21 points today Mary Gedaka moved past Michele Thornton and into 18th place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,262 career points…Villanova has now won eight of the last 12 versus St. John's and lead the all-time series with the Red Storm by a 40-28 count…The Wildcats were 14-of-18 (.777) from two-point range in the second half and overtime…Maddy Siegrist played 44:57 and Mary Gedaka played 44:18 of a possible 45 minutes in today's victory…Raven James tied her career-high with six assists in today's victory.