NEW YORK – In women's basketball action on Wednesday evening, the No. 14 Villanova Wildcats traveled to New York where they tallied a 73-57 win over the St. John's Red Storm. With the victory, Villanova improves to 23-4 overall and 14-2 in BIG EAST play, while St. John's falls to 19-6 on the year and 10-6 in the league.  
 
Leading 17-15 midway through the second quarter, the Wildcats went on a 12-4 run to take a 29-19 lead. Junior guard Maddie Burke led the spurt with five points on a three from the left wing and a fadeaway jumper in the lane. Sophomore guard Zanai Jones also drained a triple in the run. 
 
The Red Storm closed the half by scoring the final five points of the quarter to send the teams to intermission with Villanova leading 29-24.
 
Villanova finished the opening half 12-of-27 from the field and 2-of-5 from three-point range, while St. John's was 9-of-29 and 0-for-4.
 
Wildcat star Maddy Siegrist took over the game in third quarter. Villanova started the second half on a 14-5 run with Siegrist scoring 10 of the 14 points. The 10 Siegrist points included two three-point goals, a lay-up and two free throws.
 
Siegrist would finish with 19 third quarter points and propel the Wildcats to a 55-40 advantage after three. Her 19 third quarter points came on 7-of-10 shooting, a 3-of-5 effort from behind the arc and 2-of-2 from the foul line.
 
St. John's scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to slice the Wildcat lead to 55-45. Following a Villanova timeout, Siegrist scored her team's first points of the fourth stanza on 10-foot jumper in the paint. The Siegrist basket gave Villanova a 57-45 advantage.
 
Red Storm forward Danielle Patterson connected on a three from the right wing and St. John's was within single digits at 59-51 at the 6:56 mark. On Villanova's ensuing possession, the Wildcats ran an isolation play for sophomore guard Lucy Olsen who was fouled on a drive to the basket. Olsen made both foul shots to give her team a 62-51 lead. The Wildcats got a defensive stop and then increased the lead to 64-51 on a lay-up by sophomore center Christina Dalce.
 
St. John's responded by scoring six of the next eight points to make it a 66-57 game with 3:42 to play. Villanova put the game away after Siegrist split a pair at the line and buried a 15-foot jumper for a 69-57 advantage with 2:05 remaining.        
 
Siegrist led the way in the win with 39 points and 10 rebounds. She was 15-of-26 from the field, 3-of-7 from three-point range and 6-of-8 from the foul line. Siegrist scored 28 of her 39 points in the second half. Olsen finished with 14 points and seven assists, while Dalce had six points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.
 
St. John's was paced by Mimi Reid with 23 points.
 
For the game, Villanova was 29-of-58 from the field (50.0%), 5-of-14 from three-point range (35.7%) and 10-of-13 from the foul line (76.9%), while the Red Storm shot 37.7 percent from the floor (20-of-53), 33.3 percent from long distance (4-of-12) and 81.2 percent from the charity stripe (13-of-16). 
 
Villanova returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 18, when the Connecticut Huskies visit the Finneran Pavilion. Tip-off is set for 2:30 p.m.
 
NOTES: In tonight's win, Maddy Siegrist became the all-time leading scorer in the history of Philadelphia women's Division I college basketball. She now has 2,610 career points. The previous mark was 2,581 by Gabriela Marginean who played at Drexel from 2006-10…Villanova is 16-4 versus St. John's in the last 20 match-ups…The Wildcats have won 14 of its last 15 games…Villanova improves to 12-1 on the road this year…Maddy Siegrist now has 12 games of 30 points or more this year and 29 for her career…Tonight was 14th double-double of the year for Maddy Siegrist and 51st of her career…In her last two games, Maddy Siegrist has scored 89 points and has connected on 35-of-52 from the field and 7-of-13 from three-point range…Lucy Olsen now has 18 double figure scoring games this year.