VILLANOVA, PA. – The Villanova women's basketball team opened the 2020-21 season in fine fashion on Wednesday afternoon, with a convincing 70-37 win over the visiting Rider Broncs. With the victory, Denise Dillon earns her first win as head coach of the Wildcats.
 
Villanova raced to an early 11-3 lead with sophomore Madison Siegrist leading the way with five points. Senior Sarah Mortensen added four points on a three-point field goal and a free throw.
 
The Wildcats used the early spurt to take a 16-5 lead after one quarter. Villanova held Rider to just 2-of-11 shooting from the field, including an 0-of-5 effort from three-point range in the game's first 10 minutes.
 
Leading 24-15 midway through the second quarter, the Wildcats ran off five straight points to open-up a 29-15 advantage. The five points included a 10-foot jumper by Siegrist and a three-ball from sophomore guard Brooke Mullin. After a Lenaejha Evans short jumper cut the Wildcat lead to 31-19, Siegrist connected on a three from the right wing to push Villanova's lead back to 34-19 with 1:18 remaining in the opening half.
 
On the next trip down the court, Rider's Victoria Toomey split a pair at the line, before Wildcat senior guard Raven James scored on a driving lay-up to give her team a 36-20 lead with nine seconds on the clock. The Broncs closed out the first half scoring when Evans made one of two at the line and Villanova went to intermission with a 36-21 lead.
 
The Wildcats put the game away in the third quarter when Villanova went on a 12-2 run over the last 6:38 to take a 52-27 lead after three. Five Wildcats scored in the spurt, including Siegrist with four points, freshman Lior Garzon with a three-ball, freshman Bella Runyan and senior Brianna Herlihy with two points each and Mortensen chipped in with a free throw.
 
Siegrist led the way in the win with a double-double of 28 points and 10 rebounds. She was 13-of-19 from the field and 2-of-5 from three-point range. Garzon was the second Wildcat to reach double figures with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting (3-of-4 from long distance). Herlihy added eight points and eight rebounds, while James dished out a game-high six assists.
 
Amanda Mobley was the lone Rider player to reach double figures with 14 points.
 
For the game, Villanova was 30-of-57 from the field (52.6%), 8-of-20 from three-point range (40.0%) and 2-of-4 from the foul line (50.0%), while Rider shot 25.0 percent from the floor (12-of-48), 5.9 percent from long distance (1-of-17) and 75.0 percent from the charity stripe (12-of-16). The Wildcats owned a 40-26 advantage on the backboards.
 
NOTES: Rider never led in today's game…Villanova outscored Rider, 34-14, in the paint…The Wildcats improve to 32-20 all-time in season openers…With today's victory, Villanova is 9-0 all-time versus Rider…Maddy Siegrist has scored 20 points or more in 16 of her 32 career games and she now has 12 career double-doubles to her credit…Wildcat head coach Denise Dillon earned her first Villanova win this afternoon and now has 330 career victories.