Maddy Siegrist Scores 18 Fourth Quarter Points to Lead the Comeback
January 14, 2023 –
The Villanova Wildcats erased a sixteen-point lead St. John’s Red Storm lead over the last five and a half minutes to earn a 64 – 61 victory at the Finneran Pavilion. Maddy Siegrist scored a game-high 32 points, 18 of which came in the fourth quarter, to head the rally. The senior forward has tallied over 30 points in her last three games.
St. John’s lead for most of the game and appeared to be in control. The Cats seemed to lack energy and trailed 54 – 39 after three quarters. The Red Storm had good inside-outside offensive flow. The lead stretched to 59 – 43 on a traditional three-point play by Jayla Everett, who scored a team-high 18 points.
“Just extremely proud of the resilience of this team showed being down,” said Villanova Coach Denise Dillon. “St. John’s came out and showed their talent, and we’re just thankful we had a lot in the tank and did what was necessary to get the win.”
Then Siegrist lifted the intensity, and the team followed the lead. She scored all the points in an 11 -0 Villanova run cutting the gap to 61 – 54 with just under two minutes remaining. Nova forward Maddie Burke gave the lead back to the Wildcats hitting back-to-back three-pointers at 61 – 60 with just over a minute remaining. The sense of urgency was evident.
But the Wildcats could credit the win to the turned up defense at the end holding the Red Storm to 2 points over that stretch to end the game. The Cats also forced 8 turnovers and limited the shooting by the opponent to 1 – 8 during that time. Dillon said the defense turned up the heat.
“I felt like we did a great job once we started pressing them,” said Siegrist said. “They had to not make a mistake, it wasn’t on us. We had nothing to lose. I think the intensity really helped us.”
#25 Villanova improves to 16 – 3 and remains in second place in the Big East with a 7 – 1 record. St. John’s is 14 – 3, 5 – 3 in conference.
Xavier comes to the Main Line on Tuesday. Maddy Siegrist sits 45 points behind Shelly Pennefather in the Villanova basketball history all-time scoring list. Siegrist took over second place in the Big East all-time list trailing only Sara Behn of Boston College.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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