VILLANOVA, PA. – The Villanova Wildcats finished up the 2023 portion of their schedule on Saturday afternoon with a convincing 86-45 win over the visiting Xavier Musketeers. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 8-5 overall and 1-1 in BIG EAST play, while Xavier falls to 1-10 on the year and 0-2 in conference action.
The highlight of the afternoon was junior guard Lucy Olsen who became the 31st player in program history to score 1,000 career points. Olsen achieved the feat on a lay-up at the 3:36 mark of the fourth quarter.
Villanova started strong racing to an early 7-0 lead. The seven points included a lay-up by junior center Christina Dalce and a three-ball and a short jumper by Olsen. The Wildcats would use the early spurt to propel them to a 22-9 lead after one quarter of play.
The Wildcats shot 8-of-21 from the field and 4-of-9 from three in the first quarter, while the Musketeers were 4-of-11 and 1-of-2. Villanova played outstanding defense in the opening period forcing Xavier into eight turnovers.
Villanova took total control of the game over the first 5:51 of the second quarter, as the Wildcats used a 14-0 run to open-up a commanding 36-9 advantage. Five different Wildcats scored in the spurt highlighted by freshman Maddie Webber with four points and redshirt freshman guard Abby Jegede who drained a three-ball.
Xavier scored just three third quarter points and Villanova outscored the Musketeers by a 27-3 margin to take a 49-12 lead into halftime. Villanova finished the opening 20 minutes shooting 18-of-35 from the field and 7-of-15 from downtown. Xavier was just 1-of-7 from the floor in the second quarter and were charged with 18 first half turnovers.
Villanova would lead by as many as 40 and the Musketeers would not get within 31 in the second half.
In the win, Olsen led the way with a game-high 31 points to go with nine rebounds and five steals. She was 12-of-27 from the field, 2-of-9 from three-point range and 5-of-5 from the foul line. Webber and Dalce also reached double figures with 11 points each.
Xavier was paced by Daniela Lopez with 12 points.
For the game, Villanova was 32-of-70 from the field (45.7%), 12-fo-32 from three-point range (37.5%) and 10-of-11 from the foul line (90.9%), while Xavier shot 38.9 percent from the floor (14-of-36), 42.9 percent from long distance (6-of-14) and 100.0 percent from the charity stripe (11-of-11). The Wildcats forced Xavier into 32 turnovers.
Villanova returns to action on Wednesday, Jan. 3, with a road game at Seton Hall. Tip time is set for 7 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova has won 15 straight over Xavier and leads the all-time series by a 20-1 count…The Wildcats are 29-3 in their last 32 home games…Today was the sixth single digit turnover game of the year for Villanova…Lucy Olsen now has four 30-point games this season…Villanova forced a season-high 32 turnovers and scored 40 points off of the Xavier miscues...The Wildcat bench out scored the Xavier reserves by a 25-6 margin…Maddie Webber now has five double figure scoring games this year.
