VILLANOVA, PA. – In women's basketball action on Wednesday night at the Finneran Pavilion, the Villanova Wildcats led wire to wire in a 68-58 win over the Providence College Friars. With the victory, Villanova improves to 17-9 overall and 10-5 in BIG EAST play, while Providence falls to 12-16 on the year and 6-9 in league action.
Turnovers were the story of the first quarter, as Providence committed seven miscues in the game's first 10 minutes, while Villanova did not commit one. The Wildcats turned the seven Friar mistakes into 13 points en route to a 24-12 lead after one.
Villanova finished the first quarter connecting on 9-of-16 from the field and 3-of-5 from three-point range. The Friars went 4-of-10 from the floor and 1-of-3 from downtown.
Leading 26-17 early in the second quarter, Villanova scored six straight points to open-up a 32-17 advantage. The six Wildcat points included lay-ups by sophomore Megan Olbrys and junior Kaitlyn Orihel and two free throws by senior Bella Runyan.
The Wildcats used the momentum from the early spurt to propel them to a 37-24 halftime lead.
Junior guard Lucy Olsen led Villanova in the first half with nine points, while junior center Christina Dalce added seven. Grace Efosa led the Friars in the opening half with nine points.
Villanova started the second half on a 15-7 run to take its biggest lead of the game at 52-31 at the 4:11 mark of the third quarter. Olsen was dominant in the spurt, scoring 11 of the 15 points. Dalce and freshman guard Maddie Webber also added buckets.
The Wildcats dominated the third period and took a 56-37 lead into the fourth quarter.
Providence scored 13 of the first 15 points in the fourth stanza to cut the Villanova advantage to 60-50 with 4:12 on the clock. After two free throws by junior guard Kaitlyn Orihel gave the Wildcats a 64-52 lead, Efosa drained a triple and the Friars were within single digits at 64-55 with 2:43 to play.
Villanova put the game away by scoring on two straight possessions, including a lay-up by Dalce and a short jumper by Olsen. The Olsen basket gave the Wildcats a comfortable 68-55 lead.
Olsen was outstanding in the win with a game-high 30 points on 14-of-26 shooting. Dalce finished with 11 points and eight rebounds, while Orihel was the third Wildcat in double figures with 10 points.
Providence was paced by Efosa with 14 points and Olivia Olsen who had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
For the game, Villanova was 28-of-63 from the field (44.4%), 4-of-23 from three-point range (17.4%) and 8-of-11 from the foul line (72.7%), while the Friars shot 39.5 percent from the floor (17-of-43), 42.9 percent from long distance (6-of-14) and 78.3 percent from the charity stripe (18-of-23). Providence owned a 34-30 advantage on the backboards. Villanova committed just eight turnovers.
Villanova will hit the road this weekend and play at Creighton on Saturday, Feb. 24. The game is set for noon eastern time and can be seen live on Fox.
NOTES: Villanova leads the all-time series over Providence by a 61-28 margin…The Wildcats improve to 9-4 at home this season…Zanai Jones missed her second straight game due to an injury…Lucy Olsen moved past Liad Suez-Karni, Nikki Benedix, Helen Koskinen and Katie Davis and into 16th place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,301 career points…Olsen now has eight games of 30 points or more this season and 18 games of 20 points or more…Tonight was the 11th game this season that Villanova has had single digit turnovers…Christina Dalce has 19 blocked shots in her last five games.
