MILWAUKEE, WISC. – In women's basketball action on Friday night, the Villanova Wildcats traveled to Milwaukee where they lost hard fought 65-57 battle to the Marquette Golden Eagles. With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 12-4 overall and 7-4 in BIG EAST play, while Marquette improves to 15-4 overall and 12-3 in league action.
With the score tied at 20-20 midway through the second quarter, Marquette forced three Wildcat turnovers and ran off nine straight points to open-up a 29-20 lead. Villanova scored the final basket of the opening half, as senior forward Brianna Herlihy connected on a driving lay-up just before halftime buzzer. The Herlihy bucket sent the Golden Eagles to intermission with a 29-22 lead.
After a Lauren Van Kleunen conventional three-point play gave Marquette a 42-34 lead with 5:04 to play in the third quarter, the Wildcats used a 9-2 run to make it a 44-43 game at the 3:25 mark. Senior forward Sarah Mortensen led Villanova in the spurt with a baseline jumper and a three-ball from the left wing. Sophomore forward Maddy Siegrist had a short jumper and Herlihy a lay-up for the other four points.
Following three consecutive Marquette points to increase the Golden Eagle advantage to 47-43, Mortensen closed out the third quarter scoring with a 15-foot jumper and Marquette led 47-45 after three.
A three-point play by Wildcat freshman Lior Garzon sliced the Marquette advantage to 49-48 with 7:48 to play, before the Golden Eagles scored eight of the game's next 10 points to increase their lead to 57-50 with 3:46 remaining. Senior guard Selena Lott was outstanding in the decisive run scoring six of her team's eight points.
Villanova was led by Herlihy who had 19 points, six rebounds and five assists and Siegrist who tallied a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Mortensen finished with nine points, six rebounds and two assists, while Garzon chipped in with eight points.
Marquette was paced by Lott who had a game-high 22 points and 11 rebounds. Van Kleunen finished with 15 points, while Camryn Taylor added 10 points.
For the game, Villanova was 23-of-66 from the field (34.8%), 4-of-24 from three-point range (16.7%) and 7-of-9 from the foul line (77.8%), while the Golden Eagles shot 45.2 percent from the floor (28-of-62), 69.2 percent from the charity stripe (9-of-13) and were 0-for-3 from long distance. Marquette owned a 42-35 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Sunday, Feb. 21, when the Wildcats travel to Washington, D.C., to take on the Georgetown Hoyas. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova falls to 5-2 on the road this season…Tonight was 14th double figure scoring game of the year for Brianna Herlihy…Maddy Siegrist has now tallied a double-double in nine of the 16 games this year and 20 times in her two-year career…Sarah Mortensen (34 minutes) and Sam Carangi (30 minutes) both logged career-highs in minutes in tonight's contest…Villanova has made a three-point field goal in 540 consecutive games.
