VILLANOVA, PA. – The Villanova Wildcats punched their ticket to the WBIT Final Four on Thursday evening with a 67-59 home win over the Saint Joseph's Hawks. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 21-12 on the year, while Saint Joseph's ends the season at 28-6.

Villanova will now play Penn State in the Final Four on Monday. April 1. The game will be played at either 2:30 or 5 p.m.

The junior duo of Bella Runyan and Christina Dalce were dominant in the first half leading Villanova to a 36-26 halftime lead. Runyan scored 13 points, while Dalce had eight points, six rebounds and three blocks in the opening 20 minutes.

Villanova played strong defense in the first half, holding the Hawks to just 9-of-28 shooting, including a 2-of-9 effort from three-point range. The Wildcats finished the half connecting on 14-of-29 from the floor and 4-of-10 from long distance.

Two Lucy Olsen free throws gave Villanova a 38-26 advantage early in the third quarter, before the Hawks used a 13-7 spurt to slice the Wildcat lead to 45-39. Wildcat junior guard Zanai Jones scored on a pull-up jumper to give her team a 47-39 advantage with 1:12 remaining in the quarter.

After two free throws by Saint Joseph forward Laura Ziegler made it a 47-41 game, Jones closed out the third quarter scoring by draining a 15-foot jumper. The Jones bucket gave the Wildcats a 49-41 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Villanova led 52-44 with 8:10 on the clock, when the Hawks used a 7-2 spurt to cut the Wildcat advantage to 54-51 with 6:39 to play. With the momentum on the Saint Joseph's side, Olsen came alive for Villanova and scored seven straight points to put the Wildcats up 10 at 61-51 with 4:54 left.

Following the Olsen Bucket at the 4:54 mark, the Wildcat went scoreless for the next 3:58 and the Hawks were able to close the gap to six at 61-55. Villanova ended its scoreless stretch with 56 seconds remaining when Dalce scored on a lay-up off a nice pass from freshman forward Brynn McCurry and Villanova led 63-55.

Saint Joseph's made it a 63-57 game on a lay-up by Mackenzie Smith, before Villanova's Kaitlyn Orihel went two-of-two from the foul line to increase the Villanova advantage to 65-57 with 31 seconds to go. After a Hawk basket sliced the lead to 65-59, Olsen put the game away with two foul shots with 10.1 seconds remaining.

In the win, Runyan tied her career-high with 16 points, and Olsen also netted 16 points to lead the Wildcats. Runyan was 6-of-8 from the field and 4-of-4 from three-point range. The four triples represent a career-high. Dalce finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks, while Jones had 10 points and six rebounds.

Saint Joseph's was paced by Talya Brugler with a game-high 20 points and Smith who had 13 points.

For the game, Villanova was 25-of-57 from the field (43.9%), 5-of-18 from three-point range (27.8%) and 12-of-15 from the foul line (80.0%), while the Hawks were 21-of-61 from the floor (34.4%), 3-of-16 from long distance (18.8%) and 14-of-18 from the charity stripe (77.8%). Vilanova owned a slight 36-35 advantage on the backboards. Each team was charged with just eight turnovers.

NOTES: Villanova improves to 41-30 all-time in postseason play…The Wildcats finish 2023-24 season with a 13-4 home record…Villanova has won eight of the last nine versus Saint Joseph's, including five in a row at the Finneran Pavilion… Christina Dalce has 11 double-doubles this year and 17 games with double figure rebounds… Tonight was the 12th single digit turnover game for Villanova this season…The Hawks never led in the game.