CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In the second round of the WNIT on Saturday night at the Bojangles Coliseum, the Villanova Wildcats tallied a 77-57 win over the Florida Gators. The Wildcats improve to 17-6 with the victory, while Florida end its season at 12-14.
With the win, Villanova advances to the round of eight in the WNIT and the championship of the Charlotte Region on Monday where they will face the Delaware Blue Hens. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
Villanova used a 9-0 run early in the second quarter to open-up a 31-21 lead. Sophomore Maddy Siegrist and freshman Lior Garzon led the charge with each scoring on a driving lay-up and a three-point field goal. Following a lay-up by Florida's Kristina Moore that made it a 33-26 game, Villanova got a three-ball by freshman Bella Runyan and a lay-up by Siegrist that pushed the lead back to 12 at 38-26.
The Wildcats finished the first half shooting 18-of-36 from the field which helped them to a 41-30 lead at intermission.
Despite shooting 50.0 percent from the field (5-of-10) and 88.9 percent from the foul line in the third quarter, the Gators were not able to get closer than nine. Siegrist and Runyan carried the Villanova offensive load in the third stanza with Siegrist scoring nine third quarter points and Runyan recording eight and the Wildcats led 61-48 entering play in the fourth and final quarter.
Villanova put the game away early in the fourth by scoring the first five points of the quarter on a reverse lay-up by senior forward Brianna Herlihy and corner three by senior Sarah Mortensen that gave the Wildcats a comfortable 66-48 advantage. Villanova also stepped-up the defensive intensity holding the Gators to just five points over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats would lead by as many as 20 in the final stanza and Florida would not get within 14 as Villanova cruised to the victory.
Siegrist led the way in the win with 26 points and 11 rebounds to go with five assists, three steals and three blocks. Runyan scored a career-high 16 points on 4-of-5 shooting (2-of-3 from three) and a 6-of-7 effort from the foul line, while Herlihy was the third Wildcat in double figures with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Florida was paced by Moore with 13 points and Danielle Rainey who had 12 points.
For the game, Villanova was 29-of-65 from the field (44.6%), 6-of-20 from three-point range (30.0%) and 13-of-17 from the foul line (76.5%), while the Gators shot 34.0 percent from the floor (17-of-50), 12.5 percent from long distance (1-of-8) and 84.6 percent from the charitystripe (22-of-26). Florida owned a 44-29 advantage on the backboards. Villanova was credited with just four turnovers.
NOTES: Villanova improves to 18-11 all-time in the WNIT…Maddy Siegrist went over the 500 rebound mark for her career becoming just the third player in program history to register 500 rebounds in two seasons…Tonight was the 16th, 20-point game of the season for Maddy Siegrist and her 13th double-double on the year…Brianna Herlihy now has 16 double figure scoring games to her credit this season…Tonight was just the second all-time meeting between Villanova and Florida…The Wildcats outscored Florida in points off turnovers by a 20-2 margin.
