VILLANOVA, PA. – Trailing 47-39 early in the fourth quarter, the Villanova Wildcats scored 24 points over the final 9:25 to register a 65-60 win over the visiting Lehigh Mountain Hawks. With the victory, Villanova improves to 3-3 on the season, while Lehigh falls to 5-3 overall.
 
A Brooke Mullin three-ball with 7:00 on the clock sliced the Lehigh lead to 51-46. Following a defensive stop, the Wildcats made it a 51-49 game on another triple by Mullin. Lehigh answered the Mullin buckets with a three-pointer of their own when Megan Walker connected from the right wing and the Mountain Hawks led 54-49 at the 6:01 mark.
 
The Wildcats regained momentum quickly and ran off seven straight points to take their first lead of the second half at 56-54 with 3:16 remaining. The seven Villanova points included a lay-up by sophomore Bella Runyan and a three and driving lay-up by sophomore Lior Garzon.  
 
Villanova led 60-59 with 47 seconds remaining, when Lehigh's Mackenzie Kramer made one of two from the line to even the score at 60-60. After a timeout, the Wildcats ran a set play and got Garzon free for a driving lay-up that put her team up for good at 62-60.
 
Lehigh had a chance to tie the game, but the Mountain Hawks turned the ball over with 10 seconds to go. Villanova then made three-of-four from the foul line to seal the victory.
 
In the win, freshman Lucy Olsen led the way with 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including a 2-of-3 effort from three-point range and a 6-of-7 performance from the foul line. Mullin finished with a career-high 16 points, including three triples, to go with five rebounds and a career-best five steals. Garzon added 11 points, while grad student Brianna Herlihy chipped in with eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
 
Lehigh was paced by Emma Grothaus who had 16 points and Frannie Hottinger who netted 12 points.
 
For the game, Villanova was 25-of-65 from the field (38.5%), 6-of-19 from three-point range (31.6%) and 9-of-11 from the foul line (81.8%), while the Mountain Hawks shot 39.0 percent from the floor (23-of-59), 30.4 percent from long distance (7-of-23) and 70.0 percent from the charity stripe (7-of-10). Lehigh owned a 44-34 advantage on the backboards.
 
Villanova returns to action on Friday, Dec. 3, when the Wildcats open-up BIG EAST Conference play at Providence. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
 
NOTES: Villanova has won eight straight over Lehigh and lead the all-time series by an 11-1 margin…The Wildcats improve to 27-8 all-time versus Patriot League competition…Villanova scored 33 of its 65 points over the final 11:22 of the game…Tonight was Villanova's first home win of the season…Lehigh's biggest lead was 13 at the 3:02 mark of the third quarter…There were 11 ties and seven lead changes.