VILLANOVA, PA. – In a battle of two Top 25 teams on Friday evening at the Finneran Pavilion, the No. 13 Creighton Bluejays tallied a 67-46 win over the No. 25 Villanova Wildcats. With the victory, Creighton improves to 7-0 overall and 2-0 in BIG EAST play, while Villanova falls to 6-2 overall and 0-1 in conference action.
With the scored tied at 8-8, Villanova finished the first quarter on an 11-1 run to lead 19-9 after one. Senior Maddy Siegrist was dominant in the spurt scoring seven of her team's 11 points.
After a Zanai Jones basket gave Villanova a 26-21 lead at the 2:56 mark of the second quarter, Creighton scored five of the last six points of the second stanza to send Villanova to intermission with a 27-26 lead.
Creighton took control of the game midway through the third quarter when the Bluejays ran of eight straight points to break a 29-29 tie and take a 37-29 advantage. The Bluejays would use the spurt to lead 43-34 after three.
The Bluejay defense held Villanova to just 3-of-12 shooting in the third quarter, including an 0-for-4 effort from behind the arc. On the flip side, Creighton shot 58.3 percent from the floor in the third (3-of-4 effort from downtown).
Creighton held Villanova to just two points over the first 4:54 of the fourth quarter and opened- up a 54-36 advantage with 6:03 to play. Creighton would lead by as many as 23 in the fourth and cruise to the victory.
In the loss, Siegrist scored a game-high 25 points on 11-of-23 shooting to go with eight rebounds and four steals. Sophomore center Christina Dalce added nine points.
Creighton was paced by Molly Mogensen who had 22 points, including a 5-of-6 effort from three-point range, while Morgan Maly added 16 points. Emma Ronsiek chipped in with 14 points.
For the game, Villanova shot 28.8 percent from the field (19-of-65), 8.7 percent from three-point range (2-of-23) and 50.0 percent from the foul line (6-of-12), while Creighton was 25-of-53 from the floor (47.2%), 9-of-19 from behind the arc (47.4%) and 8-of-12 from the charity stripe (66.7%). Creighton owned a 41-36 advantage on the backboards.
The Wildcats will return to action on Sunday, Dec. 4, with a road game at Providence. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
NOTES: Creighton leads the all-time series over Villanova by an 11-8 count…Maddy Siegrist moved past Nancy Bernhardt and into second place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with
2,032 career points…The loss snapped Villanova's 11-game home winning streak…Tonight was the fifth all-time Top 25 match-up in women's basketball history at the Finneran Pavilion.
