INDIANAPOLIS, IND. – The Villanova Wildcats traveled to Hinkle Fieldhouse on Friday night where they tallied a 72-36 win over the Butler Bulldogs. With the victory, Villanova improves to 20-7 overall and 14-4 in BIG EAST play, while Butler falls to 1-25 overall and 0-17 in league play.
Villanova took control of the game early racing to a 10-2 lead. Back-to-back three balls by Brooke Mullin and Maddy Siegrist started the early surge with Brianna Herlihy and Lior Garzon each adding a lay-up.
The Wildcats shot 9-of-18 from the field in the opening quarter en route to a 23-8 advantage after one. Siegrist had 10 first quarter points, while Herlihy added six.
Villanova led 27-11 in the second quarter, when the Wildcats scored six of the game's next eight points to push the lead to 33-13 with 1:50 remaining until halftime. Siegrist had four of the six points on short jumpers and Garzon added a left-handed driving lay-up.
After Villanova pushed the lead to 20, Butler's Celena Taborn connected on two lay-ups and Siegrist drained a 15-foot jumper to round out the first half scoring and Villanova took a 35-17 advantage into intermission.
Siegrist was dominant in the first half scoring 22 of her team's 35 points. She was 9-of-13 from the field and 2-of-5 from three-point range. Herlihy and Garzon added six points each. Villanova was 15-of-33 from the floor in the opening 20 minutes for 45.5 percent shooting.
Villanova blew the game open over the first six minutes of the third quarter, as the Wildcats used a 19-4 run to take a commanding 54-21 lead. The Wildcats made five triples in the run, including three by Siegrist. Garzon tallied seven of the 19 points.
Siegrist poured in a game-high 31 points in the win. She was 13-of-18 from the field and 5-of-8 from three-point range. Garzon was the second Wildcat in double figures with 19 points.
Butler was paced by Celena Taborn with 12 points.
For the game, Villanova was 25-of-56 from the field (44.6%), 9-of-26 from three (34.6%) and 13-of-16 from the foul line (81.3%), while Butler shot 15-of-39 from the floor (38.5%), 2-of-9 from long distance (22.2%) and 4-of-7 from the charity stripe (57.1%). The Wildcats owned a 31-26 advantage on the backboards. Villanova committed just nine turnovers.
The Wildcats return to action on Sunday when they will close out the 2021-22 regular season at Xavier. Game time is set for 2 p.m.
NOTES: Tonight was win #20 for Villanova on the season. This is the 21st, 20-win season in program history…Denise Dillon now has seven 20-win seasons in her 19 years as a collegiate head coach…Villanova has won 12 of its last 13 games and 17 of the last 19…Maddy Siegrist has scored 30 points or more in six of the last nine games… Siegrist has a BIG EAST leading nine 30-point games and 17 for her career…Siegrist moved past Trish Juhline and into third on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,688 career points…Lior Garzon has reached double figures in 20 of the 26 games she has played in this season…The Wildcats had an assist on 18 of their 25 field goals in tonight's win.
