VILLANOVA, PA. – In women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon at the Finneran Pavilion, the No. 25 Villanova Wildcats rallied from 16 points down in the fourth quarter to earn a 64-61 win over the visiting St. John's Red Storm. With the victory, Villanova improves to 16-3 overall and 7-1 in BIG EAST play, while St. John's falls to 14-3 overall and 5-3 in league play.
 
The first quarter went back and forth with neither team able to open-up more than a four-point lead. Senior guard Unique Drake was the story for the Red Storm in the opening quarter with eight points, including two three-point field goals.
 
Maddy Siegrist, Christina Dalce and Lucy Olsen all had four first quarter points for the Wildcats. Villanova was 7-of-17 from the field, but just 1-of-8 from long distance.
 
St. John's outscored Villanova by a 21-10 margin to start the second quarter to take a 39-25 advantage. Senior guard Jayla Everett scored the final eight points of the spurt, including back-to-back three-point field goals to give her team its biggest lead of the half at 14.
 
Siegrist scored the final bucket of the first half to send the teams to halftime with St. John's leading 39-27.  Siegrist paced the Wildcats in the first 20 minutes with 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Three-point shooting was the difference in the opening half, as St. John's was 6-of-9 from behind the arc, while Villanova was just 1-of-12.
 
After a three-ball by Maddie Burke cut the St. John's lead to 45-37 with 3:12 to play in the third quarter, the Red Storm responded with six straight points to take a 51-37 advantage. St. John's would use the momentum to lead 54-39 after three.
 
Trailing 59-43 with 5:28 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats finished the game on an improbable 21-2 run. Siegrist was sensational in the run scoring 14 of Villanova's 21 points. The Wildcat defense turned up the pressure over the final 5:28, forcing St. John's into six turnovers and 1-of-8 shooting during the stretch.
Siegrist connected on two free throws with 3:57 on the clock to cut the Red Storm lead to 59-52. Following a St. John's turnover, the Wildcats sliced the advantage to 59-54 when Siegrist scored on a lay-up in transition. Each team failed to score on its next possession, before Red Storm forward Jillian Archer scored on an offensive rebound putback to increase the St. John's lead to 61-54 at the 1:47 mark.
 
Villanova quickly responded with back-to-back three-point field goals by junior Maddie Burke. The second triple trimmed the St. John's advantage to 61-60 with 1:02 left. After a St. John's turnover, Siegrist was fouled on a drive to the basket and was sent to the line for two shots. Siegrist sank both free throws and Villanova led for the first time in the second half at 62-61 with 41 seconds on the clock.
 
The Wildcats came up with a key defensive stop and Siegrist was fouled with 25 seconds to go. After Siegrist made one-of-two to give her team a 63-61 advantage, the Red Storm called timeout and advanced the ball to the front court. Out of the timeout, St. John's attempted to get the ball to the low post, but Siegrist came up with the steal and the ball ended up in Christina Dalce's hands who was fouled at the 23 second mark.
 
Dalce missed the first free throw, but made the second, and the Wildcats led 64-61. St. John's then came out of a timeout and turned the ball over. Following the turnover, Villanova was able to dribble the clock out and earn the comeback win.
 
In the victory, Siegrist had 32 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. She scored 18 of her 32 points in the fourth quarter. Burke finished with 12 points on four three-point field goals, while Dalce added five points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.
 
St. John's was paced by Everett with 18 points. Drake and Kadaja Bailey tallied 13 points each.
 
For the game, Villanova was 24-of-63 from the field (38.1%), 6-of-25 from three-point range (24.0%) and 10-of-13 from the foul line (76.9%), while St. John's shot 43.9 percent from the floor (25-of-57), 50.0 percent from behind the arc (6-of-12) and 55.6 percent from the charity stripe (5-of-9). St. John's owned a 43-30 advantage on the backboards. Villanova had just six turnovers. The Red Storm was charged with 20 turnovers, including 13 in the fourth quarter.                      
 
Villanova returns to action on Tuesday night when the Xavier Musketeers come to town. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
 
NOTES: The Wildcats have now won eight in a row over St. John's and are 15-4 in the last 19 versus the Red Storm… Villanova is 17-1 in its last 18 home games… Maddy Siegrist moved past Holly Porter and Angel McCoughtry and into second place on the BIG EAST Conference career scoring leaders list for regular season conference games with 1,343 points…Today was ninth 30-point game of the season and 26th of her career for Maddy Siegrist. It was also her third straight game of scoring 30 points or more…Maddy Siegrist moved into a tie for second place on Villanova's all-time rebounding list with Lisa Ortlip with 945 career caroms…Villanova has now made at least one three-point field goal in 600 consecutive games… Maddy Siegrist has scored 10+ points in a single quarter on 20 occasions this year, including 11 times in the second half… Today was the second straight game and third time this season that Maddy Siegrist scored at least 10 points in the last five minutes of the game.