VILLANOVA, PA. – In the 2025-26 women's basketball season opener, the Villanova Wildcats led wire to wire and cruised to a 70-38 win over the visiting Lafayette Leopards.
The Wildcats started fast racing to an early 12-2 lead. Four different Villanova players scored in the early going highlighted by senior forward
Denae Carter who had four of the 12 points.
Villanova would use the hot start to take a 22-7 lead after one quarter of play. The Wildcats played 10 players in the opening quarter with seven of the 10 getting into the scoring column.
The Wildcats played strong defense in the first half, forcing the Leopards into 11 turnovers and just 29.4 percent shooting from the field (5-of-17). Following a basket by Lafayette guard Tash Chudy that made it a 31-14 game with 5:12 left in the second quarter, Villanova scored the final five points of the half and held the Leopards scoreless to lead 36-14 at intermission.
Freshman guard
Brooke Bender led Villanova in the first half with eight points, while Carter and freshman guard
Kennedy Henry had six points each.
Villanova led 39-21 midway through the third quarter when the Wildcats ran off eight straight points to open-up a commanding 47-21 advantage. The eight points included a three-ball by Henry, a driving lay-up by rookie
MD Ntambue and a conventional three-point play by forward
Kylee Watson. The Wildcats would use the spurt to lead 50-24 after three.
Villanova would lead by as many as 36 in the fourth quarter.
In the victory, Henry led four Wildcats in double figures with 13 points. She was 4-of-7 from three-point range. Bender finished with 12 points and six rebounds, while
Kelsey Joens had 11 points. Sophomore
Jasmine Bascoe was the fourth double figure scorer with 10 points. Carter chipped in with six points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Lafayette was paced by Sauda Ntaconayigize with 15 points and Teresa Kiewiet who had 12 points.
For the game, Villanova was 28-of-71 from the field (39.4%), 12-of-33 from three-point range (36.4%) and 2-of-4 from the foul line (50.0%), while Lafayette shot 25.0 percent from the floor (12-of-48), 40.0 percent from long distance (4-of-10) and 83.3 percent from the charity stripe (10-of-12). Villanova owned a 44-34 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova returns to action on Wednesday night when Fairfield visits the Finneran Pavilion. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
