VILLANOVA, PA. -- In women's basketball action on Sunday afternoon, the Villanova Wildcats lost a heart-breaking 65-63 game to the Seton Hall Pirates. With the loss, the Wildcats drop to 12-10 overall and 6-5 in Big East play, while the Pirates improve to 14-8 overall and 7-4 in conference action.
Seton Hall used an 11-1 run to start the fourth quarter to erase a nine point deficit and take a 57-56 lead with 4:58 remaining. Shadeen Samuels and Alexis Lewis led the Pirate charge scoring nine of the 11 points. Samuels had five of the 11 and Lewis added four.
After Wildcat redshirt freshman guard Kenzie Gardler stopped the Seton Hall run with a three-point field goal from the left wing to give Villanova a 59-57 lead, the Pirates answered on their next possession when Lewis drained a triple to give Seton Hall the lead back at 60-59 with 3:39 on the clock.
Neither team was able to score for the next 2:18, before Villanova senior forward Mary Gedaka put the Wildcats up one at 61-60 with two free throws at the 1:21 mark. Villanova then got a defensive stop on the next trip down the court and redshirt freshman Maddy Siegrist was fouled with 49 seconds remaining. Siegrist made both free throws and the Wildcats held a 63-60 advantage.
Samuels sliced the Villanova lead to 63-62 when she made two free throws with 44 seconds left. Clinging to a one-point lead, Villanova worked the ball around the perimeter and got a look at a three, but Cameron Onken's triple attempt was off target.
The Pirates called timeout and advanced the ball to the front court with 11 seconds to go. Seton Hall got the ball to Mya Jackson who drove to the basket and was fouled with 4.1 seconds remaining. After making the first to tie the game, Jackson missed the second. On the miss, Samuels came up with the offensive rebound and scored on a lay-up to give Seton Hall a 65-63 lead with 2.1 seconds to play.
Villanova took its last timeout and advanced the ball to the front court where they set-up a final play. Siegrist in bounded the ball to Gedaka who passed it back to Siegrist who fired a three that was no good as time expired.
In the loss, Gedaka scored a game-high 26 points to go with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. She was 8-of-12 from the field, 2-of-4 from three-point range and 8-of-10 from the foul line. Siegrist tallied her eighth double-double of the year with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Seton Hall was paced by Samuels who had 25 points and Desiree Elmore who finished with 12 points. Lewis added 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
For the game, Villanova was 21-of-53 from the field (39.6%), 8-of-31 from three-point range (25.8%) and 13-of-16 from the foul line (81.3%), while the Pirates shot 50.0 percent from the floor (27-of-54), 8.3 percent from long distance (1-of-12) and 47.6 percent from the charity stripe (10-of-21). Seton Hall owned a 37-32 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Friday, Feb. 7, with a game at Xavier. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova had won seven in a row over Seton Hall before today. The Wildcats now lead the series by a 44-23 margin…Mary Gedaka has scored 20 points or more in five of the last eight games. She now has 20 career games of 20 points or more…With her 26 points today, Mary Gedaka moved into ninth place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,398 career points…Villanova had an assist on 17 of its 21 field goals…Maddy Siegrist now has a Big East leading eight double-doubles on the season.
