ANN ARBOR, MICH. – The Villanova women's basketball team saw its 2021-22 season come to an end on Monday evening with a 64-49 loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. With the setback, the Wildcats season ends at 24-9, while Michigan improves to 24-6 on the season.
 
Michigan will now advance to the Sweet 16 where they will take on South Dakota in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday afternoon.
 
Following a slow start that saw the game tied at 4-4 midway through the first quarter, Villanova made six of its last nine shots of the quarter to take a 16-13 lead after one. The Wildcats finished the quarter shooting 43.8 percent from the field (7-of-16), while the Wolverines were 6-of-13 for 46.2 percent.
 
The second quarter went back and forth with both teams owning a five-point lead. With Michigan leading 30-25 late in the second quarter, the Wildcats got back-to-back buckets by junior Maddy Siegrist and freshman Lucy Olsen to make it a 30-29 game. Michigan closed out the first half scoring when Leigha Brown made a 15-foot jump shot which sent the Wolverines to intermission with a 32-29 advantage.
 
After a Siegrist offensive rebound put back cut the Michigan lead to 42-40 with 3:44 remaining in the third quarter, the Wolverines scored the last six points of the quarter to take a 48-40 advantage after three.
 
Michigan continued the momentum into fourth quarter and scored the first four points of the final stanza to open-up a 52-40 lead.  Villanova ended a 5:47 scoreless stretch when Brianna Herlihy connected on two free throws that made it a 52-42 game at the 7:57 mark. The Wildcats then got a defensive stop and cut the Wolverine advantage to single digits at 52-44 when Kaitlyn Orihel scored on a breakaway lay-up.
 
The Wolverines put the game away by scoring the next seven points to grab a 59-44 lead with 4:13 on the clock. Maddie Nolan's triple from the corner was the big shot in the spurt.
 
In the loss, Siegrist led the way with 12 points, while sophomore Lior Garzon had 11 points and Herlihy added 10 points and a team-high six rebounds.
 
Michigan was paced by Naz Hillman who had 27 points and 11 rebounds, while Brown finished with 20 points. Emily Kiser was credited with 10 rebounds.
 
For the game, Villanova was 19-of-58 from the field (32.8%), 6-of-21 from three-point range (28.6%) and 5-of-7 from the foul line (71.4%), while the Wolverines shot 42.1 percent from the floor (24-of-57), 15.4 percent from long distance (2-of-13) and 71.4 percent from the charity stripe (5-of-7). Michigan owned a 49-25 advantage on the backboards.
 
NOTES: Villanova falls to 9-12 all-time in the NCAA Tournament…The Wildcats are now 0-3 all-time versus Michigan…Maddy Siegrist set the Villanova school record for points by a junior in a season with 684 points. The previous record of 675 was held by Shelly Pennefather (1985-86)…Maddy Siegrist ends the season ranked third on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,815 career points.