WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Villanova Wildcats traveled to the nation's capital on Sunday afternoon where they tallied a 48-40 road win over the Georgetown Hoyas. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 14-11 overall and 8-6 in Big East play, while Georgetown falls to 5-20 overall and 2-12 in league action.
Both teams shot poorly in first half, as the Wildcats took a slim 18-17 lead into intermission. Villanova was 5-of-28 from the field for 17.9 percent in the opening 20 minutes and Georgetown was 7-of-31 for 22.6 percent.
The Wildcats started the second half on 14-5 run to open up a 32-22 lead midway through the third quarter. Senior forward Bridget Herlihy sparked the spurt scoring seven of the 14 points on a three-point field goal, a lay-up and a short jumper.
Villanova used the opening run to control the third quarter. Following a basket by redshirt freshman Maddy Siegrist that put the Wildcats up 37-26, Georgetown closed out the third quarter scoring when Tayanna Jones connected on a triple to make it a 37-29 game after three quarters of play.
Georgetown scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter to take a 38-37 advantage with 4:57 remaining. With the momentum on the Hoyas side, Wildcat junior guard Raven James drained a three-ball on the next possession and Villanova re-gained the lead at 40-38.
Following the James trifecta, neither team was able to score for the next 2:24. Senior forward Mary Gedaka ended the scoreless drought when she buried a three from the left wing to give the Wildcats a 43-38 at the 2:33 mark.
The Wildcats sealed the win with 51 seconds remaining, when Gedaka scored on a lay-up off a broken play. The Gedaka basket gave her team a 45-38 lead.
A big story in the game was the fourth quarter Villanova defense. After Georgetown grabbed the 38-37 lead with 4:57 left, the Wildcat defense held the
Hoyas scoreless for next 4:51. Georgetown's only other points came on a lay-up with six seconds remaining.
In the win, Gedaka and Herlihy led the Wildcats with 15 points each. Herlihy also added five rebounds, three blocks and an assist. Siegrist tallied her Big East leading 10th double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds to go with three steals and three assists. Junior guard Cameron Onken pulled-down eight rebounds, while James recorded six points, five rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Georgetown was paced by Nikola Kovacikova who had 12 points.
For the game, Villanova was 16-of-54 from the field (29.6%), 6-of-30 from three-point range (20.0%) and 10-of-12 from the foul line (83.3%), while Georgetown shot 28.3 percent from the floor (17-of-60), 28.6 percent from behind the arc (4-of-14) and were 2-of-2 from the charity stripe. Villanova owned a 41-40 advantage on the backboards. Both teams were charged with 10 turnovers.
Villanova returns to action on Friday, Feb. 21, when the Marquette Golden Eagles visit the Finneran Pavilion. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova now leads the all-time series over Georgetown by a 44-24 count and have won 13 of the last 17 over the Hoyas…Mary Gedaka moved past Alex Louin and into eighth place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,443 points…Mary Gedaka now has 76 career double figure scoring games…Maddy Siegrist has scored double figures in 24 of the 25 games this season…Bridget Herlihy has 10 double figure scoring games to her credit this year…The Wildcats improve to 4-3 in road Big East games.
