PHILADELPHIA, PA. -- In women's Philadelphia Big 5 action on Tuesday afternoon, the Villanova Wildcats traveled to Tim Gola Arena where they tallied a 66-56 win over the La Salle Explorers. With the victory, Villanova improves to 6-5 overall and 3-1 in Big 5 play, while the Explorers fall to 7-5 overall and 3-1 in City Series action.
Villanova started the third quarter on a 10-5 run to open-up a 34-25 lead. Junior Maddy Siegrist and freshman Kaitlyn Orihel led the Wildcats in the spurt with Siegrist connecting on a three and a lay-up, while Oriehl had a conventional three-point play off a drive to the basket. The Wildcats would use the run to control play throughout the quarter and lead 42-35 after three.
Following a jumper by La Salle's Gabby Crawford to start the fourth quarter that cut the Villanova advantage to 42-37, the Wildcats ran off nine straight points to take a 51-37 lead. The nine Villanova points included a three-point field goal and a 15-foot jumper by sophomore Lior Garzon and a short jumper along with a lay-up in the paint by Siegrist.
Villanova would lead by double figures until the 2:01 mark, when Crawford scored on a lay-up to make it a 56-47 game. The Wildcats responded 13 seconds later when Siegrist scored on a lay-up to make it a double-digit lead again at 58-47.
The Wildcats went 8-of-10 from the foul line over the final 1:14 to seal the win.
In the victory, Siegrist led the way with a game-high 24 points and five rebounds. She was 8-of-19 from the field, 2-of-5 from three and 6-of-6 from the foul line. Grad student Brianna Herlihy tallied her second straight double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Orihel added seven points off the bench, while junior Brooke Mullin had five points, a career-high tying six assists and four rebounds.
La Salle was paced by Crawford with 17 points and Claire Jacobs who netted 16 points.
For the game, Villanova was 20-of-55 from the field (36.4%), 5-of-20 from three-point range (25.0%) and 21-of-24 from the foul line (87.5%), while La Salle shot 39.2 percent from the floor (20-of-51), 31.6 percent from long distance (10-of-15) and 66.7 percent from the charity stripe (10-of-15). The Wildcats owned a 38-25 advantage on the backboards.
The Wildcats will be off until Dec. 31, when Seton Hall will visit the Finneran Pavilion for a BIG EAST Conference match-up. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
FIRST QUARTER:
** Both teams were 2-of-11 from the field
** Villanova was 10-of-11 from the foul line
** Both teams failed to connect on a three. Villanova was 0-for-5 and La Salle was 0-for-3.
** Claire Jacobs went to the bench with two first quarter fouls
SECOND QUARTER: ** Villanova finished the half on a 10-5 run
** Maddy Siegrist picked-up her second foul with 8:54 remaining and sat out the rest of the quarter
** The Wildcats failed to score for the first 6:15
** 11 of La Salle's 13 points came from the bench
THIRD QUARTER:
** Kaitly Orihel gave Villanova a spark with five third quarter points
** Maddy Siegrist scores seven points in the third
** Villanova started the quarter on a 10-5 run
** The Wildcats had six assists on seven field goals
NOTES: Villanova has now won 13 straight over La Salle and leads the all-time series by a 42-9 margin…The Wildcats improve to 36-7 in the last 43 Big 5 games…Villanova is 125-41 all-time in Big 5 play…Maddy Siegrist has scored 96 points in three career games versus La Salle…Today was the last non conference game of the season for the Wildcats.
