ANN ARBOR, MICH. -- In a first round NCAA Tournament game on Saturday afternoon, the 11-seeded Villanova Wildcats upset the six-seed BYU Cougars by a score of 61-57. With the victory, Villanova improves to 24-8 on the season, while BYU ends its season at 26-4.
 
The Wildcats will now advance to the second round on Monday night against the 3-seed and host Michigan Wolverines.
 
BYU dominated play early racing to a 13-2 lead. Shooting was the difference in the early going, as BYU made four of its first seven shots, including two three-point field goals, while Villanova connected on just one of its first seven shots.
 
The Wildcats closed the opening quarter by outscoring BYU by a 12-7 margin to make it a 17-14 Cougar lead after one.
 
The second quarter went back and forth with neither team able to open-up more than a four-point lead. Following two Paisley Harding free throws that gave BYU a 30-29 advantage with 2:06 remaining in the opening half, neither team was able to score the rest of way and the Cougars took a 30-29 lead into intermission.
 
With the score tied at 46-46 with 7:37 remaining, the Wildcats used a 9-2 run to take a 55-48 lead at the 5:30 mark. After grad forward Brianna Herlihy got the spurt going with a conventional three-point play, junior forward Maddy Siegrist scored six straight points, including a short jumper in the lane, one foul shot and a three from the left wing.
 
BYU answered the Villanova run by scoring eight straight points to slice the Wildcat advantage to 56-55 with 2:19 on the clock. The big shot in the spurt was a three-ball by Tegan Graham. Villanova took a timeout to slow the Cougar momentum. Out of the timeout, the Wildcats got the ball to Siegrist who scored on a post move in the lane to give her team a 58-55 lead.
 
After both teams failed to score on two possessions each, BYU made it a 58-57 game when Sara Hamson scored on a lay-up with 26 seconds on the clock. The Wildcats took a timeout and advanced the ball to the front court where BYU was forced to foul. The Cougars took two fouls before Siegrist was fouled with 16 seconds to play. Siegrist calmly drained both free throws and Villanova led 60-57.
 
On the game's next possession, Villanova forced the Cougars to take a tough, defended three that was partially blocked by Siegrist. Herlihy grabbed the loose ball and put the game away by making one-of-two from the line.
 
Siegrist led the way in the win with a game-high 25 points with 19 coming in the second half. Freshman Kaitlyn Orihel came off the bench to score 10 points, while fellow rookie Lucy Olsen had nine points, a career-high six assists and three rebounds. Herlihy added five points and a team-high nine rebounds.
 
BYU was paced by Harding who had 21 points and Graham who chipped in with 11 points.
 
For the game, Villanova was 22-of-59 from the field (37.3%), 6-of-26 from three (23.1%) and 11-of-17 from the foul line (64.7%), while the Cougars shot 38.9 percent from the floor (21-of-54), 36.3 percent from long distance (6-of-17) and 75.0 percent from the charity stripe (9-of-12). Villanova committed just nine turnovers.        
 
NOTES: Today was Villanova's 12th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament…The Wildcats are now 9-11 all-time in NCAA Tourney play…Villanova improves to 2-0 all-time versus BYU. The first meeting between the schools came in December of 1995…With today's win, Villanova has won 19 of its last 21…Maddy Siegrist has 21 twenty point games this year and 51 for her career…Maddy Siegrist went over the 1,800 career point mark in today's game and now has 1,803 points.. The Villanova bench out scored the BYU reserves by a 16-4 count…Maddy Siegrist was 7-of-12 from the field in the second half.