VILLANOVA, PA. – The Villanova Wildcats finished off a 2-0 BIG EAST weekend on Sunday afternoon with a thrilling 70-68 win over the visiting St. John's Red Storm. With the victory, Villanova improves to 8-5 overall and 2-2 in conference play, while St. John's falls to 5-8 and 1-2.

Villanova led 48-47 with 4:02 remaining in the third quarter, when the Wildcats finished the quarter on a 7-2 run to take a 55-49 lead after three. The seven Wildcat points included a left-handed lay-up by junior Maddy Siegrist, a lay-up by Christina Dalce and a three-ball by junior Brooke Mullin.

After the Red Storm scored the first three points of the fourth quarter to cut the Villanova advantage to 55-52, the Wildcats used a 6-0 spurt to open-up their biggest lead of the game at 61-52 with 7:53 to play. Back-to-back conventional three-point plays by the sophomore duo of Bella Runyan and Lior Garzon accounted for the six points.

Villanova looked to be in control with a 61-54 lead at the 5:49 mark, when St. John's ran of six straight points to make it a 61-60 game. The Wildcats took a timeout to slow down the Red Storm momentum and came out of the timeout and scored on a Garzon lay-up to increase the lead to 63-60. Following a defensive stop, Villanova took a two-possession lead at 65-60 on running lay-up in the lane by Brianna Herlihy. St. John's would not go away and got four straight points from Leilani Correa to cut the Villanova advantage to 65-64 with 3:03 remaining.

Siegrist connected on a 10-foot jumper to put her team up 67-64, before St. John's guard Unique Drake made two free throws and the Wildcats held a 67-66 lead with 2:10 on the clock. After Villanova failed to score on its next possession, St. John's took a 68-67 lead with 1:22 remaining when Correa scored on an off-balance driving lay-up.

St. John's had a chance to increase its one-point lead, but Runyan made a great defensive play with a blocked shot and Villanova had possession down one with 25.2 seconds to go. Coming out of the timeout, Villanova got Siegrist a good look at a three that was off target, but Herlihy grabbed the offensive rebound and found Garzon open on the wing. Following the miss by Garzon, Siegrist came down with the offensive rebound and scored on the put back and was fouled. The Siegrist and one free throw gave the Wildcats a 70-68 lead with 4.5 seconds remaining.

The Red Storm took a timeout and advanced the ball to the front court. St. John's had two good looks for the game-tying basket, but Correa missed a driving lay-up and Rayven Peeples missed a short jumper as time expired.

In the win, Siegrist scored a game-high 28 points to go with 11 rebounds, four assists and a steal. Garzon finished with 13 points, while Herlihy posted her fourth consecutive double-double with 12 points and 11 caroms.

Correa and Peeples both had double-doubles for the Red Storm with Correa tallying 20 points and 10 rebounds and Peeples with 13 points and 11 boards. Drake finished with 19 points.

For the game, Villanova was 27-of-72 from the field (37.5%), 4-of-25 from three (16.0%) and 12-of-15 from the foul line (80.0%), while St. John's shot 41.5 percent from the floor (27-of-65), 0.0 percent from behind the arc (0-for-8) and 73.7 percent from the charity stripe (14-of-19). Villanova owned a 45-40 advantage on the backboards.

The Wildcats are scheduled to return to action on Friday, Jan. 7, when the Connecticut Huskies visit the Finneran Pavilion. Game time is set for 7 p.m.

NOTES: The Wildcats are 12-4 versus St. John's in the last 16 games and lead the all-time series by a 44-28 count…Villanova has won four straight home games and are now 4-2 in games played at the Finneran Pavilion this year…Today was the 36th career 20-point game for Maddy Siegrist and her 26th career double-double…Lior Garzon has reached double figures in 10 of the 13 games this season…In today's win, Maddy Siegrist moved past Michele Thornton, Liad Suez-Karni and Nikki Benedix and into 17th place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,289 career points.