VILLANOVA, PA. – In a women's basketball matinee on Friday afternoon, the Villanova Wildcats tallied a 59-44 win over the visiting Butler Bulldogs. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 12-6 overall and 6-3 in BIG EAST play, while Butler falls to 1-16 on the year and 0-8 in league action.
Villanova scored the first six points of the game en route to a 14-3 lead. Junior forward Maddy Siegrist led the early charge scoring nine of her team's first 14 points. Siegrist showed off her versatility in the early going scoring on post moves in the lane, pull-up jumpers and three-point field goals.
The Wildcats would use the quick start to lead 19-13 after one quarter of play.
Leading 24-17 midway through the second quarter, Villanova went on a 12-0 run to end the quarter and lead 36-17 at halftime. Siegrist was dominate in the spurt scoring 10 of Villanova's 12 points, including two field goals from behind the arc. The Villanova defense was the story of the second quarter, as the Wildcats held the Bulldogs to just four points on 20 percent shooting (2-of-10) from the field.
Villanova controlled the third quarter and took its largest lead of the game at 50-26 at the 1:26 mark when freshman forward Christine Dalce scored on a driving lay-up.
Butler used a 9-2 run to slice the Villanova lead to 52-39 with 5:47 remaining, before the Wildcats scored six straight points to go back up 19 at 58-49 with 3:13 on the clock. Freshman guard Lucy Olsen connected on two short jumpers, while sophomore Lior Garzon scored on a driving lay-up.
In the win, Siegrist scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-20 shooting, including a 3-of-7 effort from three-point range. Olsen was the second Wildcat in double figures with 10 points to go with a team-high six rebounds.
Butler was paced by Trinity White with 10 points.
For the game, Villanova was 23-of-58 from the field (39.7%), 5-of-19 from three-point range (26.3%) and 8-of-10 from the foul line (80.0%), while the Bulldogs shot 28.8 percent from the floor (15-of-52), 25.0 percent from behind the arc (3-of-12) and 57.9 percent from the charity stripe (11-of-19). Butler owned a 45-32 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Sunday, Jan. 30, when the Xavier Musketeers visit the Finneran Pavilion. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova has now won nine of its last 10 games…Today was Villanova's seventh straight home win…Maddy Siegrist now has 40 career games of 20 points or more, including nine this season…Maddy Siegrist became the 10th player in Villanova women's basketball history to surpass the 1,400 career point mark. She now has 1,420 career points to her credit…Today was the third double figure scoring mark of the season for Lucy Olsen.
