POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – In the 2022-23 season opener, the Villanova Wildcats traveled to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where they tallied a 60-38 win over the Marist Red Foxes.
The story of the night was the homecoming for Villanova star Maddy Siegrist who grew up down the road from the Marist campus and attended Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie. Siegrist had over 200 fans on hand to watch her lead the Wildcats with a game-high 21 points.
The first quarter went back and forth with Marist taking a slim 17-15 lead after the game's first 10 minutes. Villanova started the second quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 24-19 advantage. Junior Bella Runyan started the run with a three-point field goal from straight away before Brooke Mullin connected on a 15-foot jumper and sophomore center Christina Dalce scored on back-to-back lay-ups.
After a slow start, Siegrist got hot late in the second quarter for Villanova. The star forward scored Villanova's last seven points of the half to help the Wildcats to a 37-29 halftime lead. Siegrist finished with 11 first half points, while Dalce had 10 points and 10 rebounds in opening half.
Villanova came out in the second half and played dominant defense to take control of the game. The Wildcats held the Red Foxes to 3-of-24 shooting in the second half (2-of-10 in 3rd quarter; 1-of-14 in 4th) and nine second half points.
The Wildcats led 43-33 with 3:25 to play in the third quarter, before scoring the final six points of the quarter to lead 49-33 after three. The six points included fast break lay-ups by Mullin and Siegrist and a jumper in the paint by sophomore Lucy Olsen.
Marist would not get within 14 in the fourth quarter as Villanova cruised to the victory.
In the win, Siegrist tallied 21 points and 13 rebounds, while Dalce finished with a career-high 13 points and a career-high 17 rebounds to go with a career-high five blocks. Mullin had seven points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists. Olsen finished with eight points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Marist was paced by Zaria Shazer with 18 points and eight rebounds and Kiera Fisher who tallied 11 points.
For the game, Villanova was 24-of-66 from the field (36.4%), 3-of-22 from three (13.6%) and 9-of-17 from the foul line (52.9%), while Marist was 13-of-52 from the floor (25.0%), 3-of-14 from long distance (21.4%) and 9-of-14 from the charity stripe (64.3%). The Wildcats owned a 54-34 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Friday, Nov. 11, with a road game at Princeton. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova now leads the all-time series with Marist by a 4-1 count…The Wildcats improve to 33-21 all-time in season openers…Maddy Siegrist now has 52 career 20-point games and 38 career double-doubles…The Wildcats had 15 second chance points and 14 fast break points. Marist had zero in both categories.
