UNCASVILLE, CONN. – In the quarterfinal round of the 2022 BIG EAST Tournament, the Villanova Wildcats registered a 76-52 win over the St. John's Red Storm. With the victory, Villanova improves to 22-7 on the season, while St. John's finishes the year at 12-19.
 
Villanova will now advance to the semifinals on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. The Wildcats will play the winner of the Creighton/Seton Hall game.
 
The Wildcats led 36-28 with 2:39 remaining in the second quarter, when Villanova scored eight straight points to take a 44-28 advantage. Junior Maddy Siegrist started the spurt by connecting on back-to back jumpers in the lane. With 1:03 on the clock, sophomore Bella Runyan was  fouled on a drive to the basket. Before Runyan went to the line, the St. John's bench was hit with a technical foul.
 
Runyan made both of her foul shots, before Siegrist sank the technical free throws to put her team up 44-28. Red Storm guard Leilani Correa ended the first half scoring when she scored on a driving lay-up. The Correa basket sent the teams to halftime with Villanova leading 44-30.
 
The Wildcats scored the first four points of the third quarter on an offensive rebound put back by Brianna Herlihy and a lay-up by Lior Garzon to go up 18 at 48-30. With Villanova on the verge of running away from the Red Storm, St. John's responded with six straight points to slice the Wildcat advantage to 48-36.
 
Villanova ended the St. John's run when Herlihy drained a three from the right wing to put the Wildcats up 51-36. The Wildcats then got a defensive stop and Herlihy scored again off a post move in the lane.
 
After each team traded three-balls and two lay-ups, Villanova scored six consecutive points to open-up a 62-41 lead with 27 seconds to play in the third quarter. The six Wildcat points included a 10-foot jumper by Siegrist, a breakaway lay-up by Runyan and two Herlihy free throws.
 
St. John's would not get within 20 in the fourth quarter and Villanova cruised to the win.
 
Siegrist led the way in the victory with a game-high 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting. Herlihy tallied 16 points, a career-high 17 rebounds and six assists, while Garzon had 15 points. Freshman Lucy Olsen added 13 points on a career-high tying four three-point field goals.   
 
The Red Storm were paced by Kadaja Bailey with 19 points and Correa who had 15 points.
 
For the game, Villanova was 27-of-63 from the field (42.9%), 9-of-26 from three-point range (34.6%) and 13-of-18 from the foul line (72.2%), while St. John's shot 39.7 percent from the floor (23-of-58), 21.4 percent from long distance (3-of-14) and 60.0 percent from the charity stripe (3-of-5). The Wildcats owned a 41-31 advantage on the backboards. Villanova committed a season-low five turnovers.
 
NOTES: Villanova improves to 5-3 all-time versus St. John's in the BIG EAST Tournament…The Wildcats are now 10-6 all-time in the conference tournament as the 2-seed…Villanova has won its first game in the BIG EAST Tournament in 27 of the 39 conference tournaments…The Wildcats will be making their 15th all-time appearance in the BIG EAST semifinals on Sunday…Brianna Herlihy tied a Villanova record for most rebounds in a BIG EAST Tournament game with her 17 boards…Villanova has won 14 of its last 15 games and 19 of 21…Maddy Siegrist now has 19, 20-point games this year and 49 for her career…With her eight rebounds tonight, Maddy Siegrist moved past Kathie Beisel and into sixth place on Villanova's all-time rebounding list with 734…Lior Garzon has scored double figures in 22 of 28 games this season.