UNCASVILLE, CONN. – The Villanova Wildcats advanced to the BIG EAST Tournament championship game with a 64-55 win over the Seton Hall Pirates in the semifinal round on Sunday night. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 23-7 and will take on the Connecticut Huskies in Monday's title game. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m., and the game can be seen live on FS1.Seton Hall falls to 19-12 on the season.
Villanova led 16-12 with under two minutes to play in the opening quarter, when the Wildcats scored the last seven points of the quarter to lead 23-12 after one. The seven Villanova points included a turnaround jumper and a three-ball by Maddy Siegrist and two free throws by Lucy Olsen.
The second quarter was a defensive battle with both teams shooting just 25.0 percent in the second stanza. After not committing a turnover in the game's first 10 minutes, Villanova was credited with five second quarter miscues. Seton Hall outscored Villanova by a 9-7 margin in the second quarter to send the game to halftime with Villanova leading 30-21.
Villanova came out of intermission and scored the first six points on back-to-back three-pointers by Olsen and Siegrist to open-up a 36-21 advantage. With 2:55 to play in the third quarter, the Wildcats led 45-32 when Seton Hall scored four straight points to make it a 45-36 advantage. Siegrist answered with a triple to push the lead back to 48-36, before the Pirates finished the third quarter scoring on two foul shots to cut the Villanova lead to 48-38 entering the fourth quarter.
Seton Hall trailed 51-38 with 8:32 remaining in regulation, when the Pirates scored nine straight points to make it a 51-47 game. Park-Lane had a lay-up and two free throws, while Andra Espinoza-Hunter drained a three and an off-balance jumper to account for the nine Pirate points.
With momentum on Seton Hall's side and Villanova in a 4:04 scoreless stretch, Olsen drove to the basket and was fouled. Olsen sank both free throws to give the Wildcats a 53-47 lead at the 4:28 mark. On Seton Hall's next possession, Sidney Cooks made two foul shots to make it a four-point game again. Siegrist answered for Villanova on post move in the paint, before Cooks scored again and Villanova's lead was at 55-51 with 3:40 on the clock.
After each team failed to score on its next two possessions, Villanova had the ball with 2:09 on the clock. The Wildcats ran an offensive set to perfection and took a 57-51 lead on a driving lay-up by Garzon. Villanova then got back-to-back defensive stops and put the game away when Garzon drained a three with 1:00 to play. The Garzon trifecta gave the Wildcats a 60-51 lead.
Siegrist led the Wildcats in the win with 24 points, 14 rebounds and four steals. Herlihy finished with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Garzon had 13 points. Olsen added 10 points.
Seton Hall was paced by Park-Lane with 24 points and Cooks who had 19 points. Espinoza-Hunter was the third Pirate in double figures with 12.
For the game, Villanova was 23-of-52 from the field (44.2%), 9-of-25 from three-point range (36.0%) and 9-of-14 from the foul line (64.3%), while the Pirates shot 35.7 percent from the floor (20-of-56), 16.7 percent from long distance (3-of-18) and 80.0 percent from the charity stripe (12-of-15). Villanova owned a 39-29 advantage on the backboards.
NOTES: Villanova advances to the BIG EAST championship game for the first time since 2003. The Wildcats are 3-1 all-time in conference title games…Villanova improves to 5-10 all-time in the BIG EAST semifinals…The Wildcats improve to 3-1 all-time versus Seton Hall in the BIG EAST Tournament…Maddy Siegrist now has 50 career games of 20 points or more and 37 career double-doubles…Lior Garzon reached the double figure scoring mark for the 23rd time this season.
