QUEENS, N.Y. – On Friday afternoon in Queens, N.Y., the Villanova Wildcats turned in a strong effort from start to finish and tallied a convincing 82-58 win over the St. John's Red Storm. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 14-6 overall and 8-3 in BIG EAST play, while St. John's falls to 7-15 overall and 3-9 in league play.

St. John's scored the opening basket of the game on its first possession, before Villanova ran off 17 straight points to lead 17-2. The early spurt was led by junior forward Maddy Siegrist who scored 12 of the 17 points, including two three-point field goals. Sophomore Lior Garzon also nailed two triples during the early spurt.

Villanova used the early run to lead 21-11 after one. The Wildcats were 8-of-15 from the and 4-of-9 from three in the first quarter, while St. John's was just 4-of-16 and 1-of-5.

After Red Storm guard Kadija Bailey scored the first points of the second quarter on a short jumper, Siegrist scored five straight points on a conventional three-point play and a lay-up to put Villanova up 26-13. Camree Clegg made it a 26-16 game when she connected on a three, before the Wildcats scored five of the game's next seven points to open-up their biggest lead of the first half at 33-18. The big bucket during the Villanova spurt was a three-ball by junior Brooke Mullin.

Trailing 40-28 late in the second quarter, Bailey sent St. John's into intermission with some momentum when she connected on a three-ball just before the second quarter buzzer. The Bailey three made it a 40-31 game at intermission.

Villanova led 64-52 with 6:54 to play in the game, when the Wildcats went on a decisive 10-2 run to take a 74-54 lead at the 2:46 mark. Following a lay-up by Mullin, Siegrist scored eight straight points to put the game away.

In the win, Siegrist was sensational with 34 points on 15-of-22 shooting, including a 2-of-7 effort from three-point range and a 2-of-3 performance from the foul line. She also had seven rebounds and two steals. Garzon finished with 17 points, including three field goals from behind the arc. Grad student Brianna Herlihy pulled-down a game-high 10 rebounds.

St. John's was paced by Bailey who had 18 points with all 18 coming in the first half. Clegg also tallied double figures with 11 points.

For the game, Villanova was 32-of-63 from the field (50.8%), 8-of-25 from three-point range (32.0%) and 10-of-15 from the foul line (66.7%), while St. John's shot 44.2 percent from the floor (23-of-52), 31.6 percent from behind the arc (6-of-19) and 60.0 percent from the charity stripe (6-of-10). The Wildcats dominated the glass by a 42-22 margin.

Villanova returns to action on Sunday, Feb. 6, when the Georgetown Hoyas visit the Finneran Pavilion. Game time is set for 2 p.m.

NOTES: Villanova has won six in a row and 11 of its last 12…Today was Villanova's sixth straight win over St. John's…Maddy Siegrist now has 13 career games of 30 points or more, including five this season…Villanova had an assist on 22 of its 32 field goals in today's victory.