Maddy Siegrist Becomes the Leading Scorer in Villanova Basketball History

Siegrist Scored 23 Points Against Creighton to Pass Shelly Pennefather

January 20, 2023 –

This is the moment. With just over six and a half minutes to play in the fourth quarter Maddy Siegrist took a short jumper in the lane. Good! And with that basket Siegrist became the leading scorer in Villanova history including both women’s and men’s basketball. She passed the legendary Shelly Pennefather to climb to the top of the list.

“It’s so special,” Siegrist said. “The amount of great players that have played at Villanova, it is such an honor. To break Shelly’s record, I never could have imagined it. Especially somebody like that, such a good player but such a better person too.”

“Proud to see Maddy climb to the top of the list, said Villanova Coach Denise Dillon. “As an alum and a player aware of Shelly’s accomplishments and what she did. Seeing her hold that record for thirty years and to be a part of Maddy’s journey and watch her work to this point has been an absolute pleasure. Incredibly proud of her and she still has much more to do. It’s going to be exciting as she continues to lead the team.”

Siegrist finished the game with 23 points to total 2,414 in her career. But what mattered most to the senior forward was they won the game at Creighton, a team that beat them earlier in the season. It means so much for Nova and Siegrist to get the win, it made it sweeter that the team did so with other players contributing on the offensive end, and the Wildcats played great defense.

“It was huge,” Siegrist said. “I tried not to think about it this week, but with social media you’re aware. Going into this game it was whatever we had to do to get the win. That was the most important thing.”

In avenging the earlier defeat Villanova came out early and took control of the game in the 73 – 57 victory. The BlueJays missed their first 18 shots, not getting their first field goal until the second quarter. They scored 6 points in the first quarter, their lowest of the season. Siegrist was the focal point of the defense, and it took her until the fourth quarter to move to the top of the list. Creighton paid a price for that when guard Maddie Burke made five three-point baskets. Fellow guard Lucy Olsen scored 19 points and added 8 rebounds and 7 assists to the stat line. The BlueJays were held to 33% shooting while Villanova cashed in 53% of the time.

“To start the first quarter like that. Maddie Burke scoring, Lucy scoring, all these kids scoring was huge,” Siegrist said giving credit to her teammates. “And when the time came I took as many opportunities as I could.”

Siegrist let the game come to her.

“She never let up” Dillon said about the performance of Siegrist. “It’s huge accomplishment breaking the record and Maddy still coming up being our leading scorer, but I thought she did a heck of a job on the defensive end. She knew what needed to be done. Everything on the record would take care of itself. Even if it wasn’t tonight, all she cared about was us winning this basketball game”

Ironically, Siegrist moved into second place in scoring history in a loss to Creighton. She got the record against that same team in a win.

“You don’t want to get something like that when you lose,” said Siegrist.

Siegrist is now two-points behind Diana Caramanico of Penn to become the leading scorer in Big Five women’s basketball.

The Wildcats improve to 18 – 3 and 9 – 1 in the Big East. Their next game is next weekend at UConn who leads the conference.

There will be more accomplishments for the senior forward who is the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association Amateur of the Year. She is on the watch list for national awards including the Wooden Award

For now, she can let setting the record sink in. And get ready for the Huskies.

Written By: Glenn Papazian

Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com

Maddy Siegrist

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