VILLANOVA, PA. – In first round NCAA Tournament action on Saturday evening, the 4-seeded Villanova Wildcats tallied a 76-59 win over the 13-seeded Cleveland State Vikings. With the victory, Villanova improves to 29-6 on the year, while Cleveland State finishes its season at 30-5.
The Wildcats will now advance to the second round and take on the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles on Monday, March 20. A game time will be announced later tonight.
Villanova led 7-6 midway through the opening quarter, when the Wildcats finished the period on a 12-1 run to lead 19-7. Sophomore guard Kaitlyn Orihel highlighted the spurt with two three-point field goals. The other six points included a lay-up by sophomore guard Lucy Olsen and two buckets by senior star Maddy Siegrist.
The Wildcats continued the momentum into the second quarter and out-scored the Vikings by a 12-7 margin over the first six minutes to open-up a 31-14 advantage. Siegrist was outstanding in the run going three-of-three from the field for six points. Orihel drained her third three of the half in the stretch.
Villanova would use the run to take a 42-21 lead into intermission. Siegrist was sensational in the game's first 20 minutes scoring 22 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field. The Wildcats were 16-of-38 from the field and 6-of-15 from three in the opening half, while Cleveland State was 8-of-28 and 3-of-13.
Over the first six minutes of the third quarter, the Wildcats scored 16 points to take a commanding 58-32 lead with 4:03 to play in the period. Siegrist had nine of the 16 points, while Olsen and junior guard Bella Runyan each drained three-balls.
The Wildcats would lead by as many as 32 in the fourth quarter and Cleveland State would not get within 17 and Villanova cruised to the win.
Siegrist led the way in the victory with 35 points on 15-of-28 shooting. She was 1-of-2 from three and 4-of-5 from the foul line. Runyan came off the bench to score 13 points to go with five assists and three rebounds. Orihel and Olsen had nine points each. Sophomore center Christina Dalce pulled-down a game-high 16 rebounds.
Cleveland State was paced by Destiny Leo who had 25 points. She was the lone Viking in double figures.
For the game, Villanova was 29-of-66 from the field (43.9%), 10-of-25 from three-point range (40.0%) and 8-of-12 from the foul line (66.7%), while the Vikings shot 34.0 percent from the floor (18-of-53), 21.1 percent from long distance (4-of-19) and 86.4 percent from the charity stripe (19-of-22). The Wildcats owned a 44-29 advantage on the backboards.
NOTES: Villanova improved to 10-12 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, including 1-2 at home… The Wildcats have won 23 of their last 25 home games…Villanova ties the school record for wins in a season with 29…The Wildcats have won 20 of their last 23 games…Maddy Siegrist became the fifth player in Division I women's basketball history to score 1,000 points in a season (currently has 1,019 points)…Maddy Siegrist has scored 20 points in all 35 games this year and ties former Washington star Kelsey Plum for the most consecutive 20-point games in a season…Siegrist now has 15 games of 30 points or more this year and 32 for her career.