QUEENS, N.Y. – The Villanova Wildcats traveled to New York on Sunday evening where they tallied a 74-65 win over the St. John's Red Storm in the Big East opener for both teams. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in conference action, while St. John's falls to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in league play,
Cold shooting doomed the Wildcats in the early going, as Villanova missed its first eight three-point attempts and St. John's raced to a 12-5 lead. Villanova played strong defense and held the Red Storm scoreless over the final 3:36 of the opening quarter and the Wildcats were able to get a little rhythm on the offensive end and scored the last seven points to tie the game at 12-12 after one.
Villanova led 20-19 midway through the second quarter, when the Wildcats used a 9-3 run to grab a 29-22 lead. The Wildcats used three triples for the nine points with freshman Lior Garzon burying two and sophomore Brooke Mullin the other. The Wildcats would use the spurt to take a 33-28 lead into halftime.
Garzon led Villanova in the opening half with 10 points.
Leading 37-30 with 8:16 to play in the third quarter, the Wildcats went on a 14-2 run to open- up a 51-32 advantage. Back-to-back threes by Mullin and senior guard Raven James kick started the spurt that would include six points by sophomore forward Maddy Siegrist.
After a Siegrist bucket put Villanova up 55-40 with 2:09 left in the third, the Red Storm got two free throws form Leilani Correa and a short jumper by Raven Farley that made it a 55-44 Wildcat lead after three.
The Wildcats scored eight of the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to increase the lead to 63-47 at the 7:22 mark. The eight points included a short fade away from senior forward Sarah Mortensen and consecutive three balls from senior forward Brianna Herlihy and freshman Bella Runyan.
Villanova would control the final quarter until the final 1:50 when St. John's made one final charge. Following two free throws by Correra that made it a 71-61 game, St. John's forced a Wildcat turnover and converted the miscue into a lay-up by Correra that sliced the lead to 71-63 with 1:29 to go. On the game's next possession, Villanova guard Sam Carangi was called for an offensive foul that gave the Red Storm possession. St. John's then made it a six point game at 71-65 when Kadaja Bailey connected on an offensive rebound put back with 1:02 remaining.
With momentum on the Red Storm's side, Villanova ran the shot clock down on its next offensive possession, before James found a wide open Siegrist in the left corner. The dagger three by Siegrist put the game away and gave the Wildcats the 74-65 victory.
In the win, Siegrist led Villanova with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while Mortensen registered her first career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Two other Wildcats reached double figures including Herlihy with 13 and Garzon who finished with a career-best 12 points.
St. John's was paced by Correra who had a game-high 21 points and Farley who added 12 points and a team-high seven caroms.
For the game, Villanova 30-of-69 from the field (43.5%), 11-of-30 from three-point range (36.7%) and 3-of-5 from the foul line (60.0%), while St. John's shot 44.2 percent from the floor (23-of-52), 35.7 percent from long distance (5-of-14) and 70.0 percent from the charity stripe (14-of-20). Villanova owned a 42-31 advantage on the backboards.
NOTES: Villanova is now 10-4 in its last 14 games versus St. John's and lead the all-time series by a 42-28 count…Maddy Siegrist now has 15 career double-doubles in 35 collegiate games…Maddy Siegrist has registered a double-double in all four games this season…Brianna Herlihy is 14-of-26 from the field in the last two games…The Wildcats were credited with an assist on 20 of their 30 made field goals in tonight's win…Villanova improves to 3-0 on the road this season…The Wildcats were credited with 16 offensive rebounds against the Red Storm…After missing its first eight three-point field goal attempts, Villanova connected on 11 of their next 22 from long distance.
