Nov. 19, 2008

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Senior Siobhan O'Connor (West Chester, Pa.) made a three-pointer with 36 seconds remaining to account for the final lead change of the night in a back-and forth contest and Villanova (2-1, 1-1 Big Five) emerged from The Palestra with a 45-43 win over Penn (0-2, 0-1 Big Five) on Wednesday night. The teams swapped leads eight times in the game and were never separated by more than one possession for the final 13 minutes of the contest.

The Wildcats were able to come away with the win when the Quakers went 0-for-5 from the field in the final 1:36. The game-ending sequence began when Villanova called a timeout down three points, 43-40, with 2:24 remaining. After the break, junior Maria Getty (Centerville, Ohio) made a layup to cut the deficit to 43-42.

O'Connor and sophomore Heather Scanlon (Drexel Hill, Pa.) came up with defensive rebounds as the Wildcats got two straight stops on the other end and O'Connor made her second three-pointer of the game with 36 seconds left to close out the scoring. Penn made just one field goal in the last 10 minutes and had just five baskets in the entire second half.

Getty scored a game-high 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting and hit 4-of-7 three-pointers. She and O'Connor combined to go 6-of-10 from behind the arc but the rest of the team was 0-for-12 to prevent Villanova from having any chance at creating a wider gap between the teams. O'Connor finished with 11 points and three assists. Seniors Lisa Karcic (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) and Laura Kurz (Lower Gwynedd, Pa.) had seven and six rebounds, respectively.

The seesaw affair was never more than six points in favor of either side. The Quakers led 23-17 late in the first half but the Wildcats needed just 1:14 of game clock spanning the intermission to score 11 straight points. Karcic made two free throws with 30 seconds to go before the break and with 11 seconds left redshirt freshman Sarah Jones (Philadelphia, Pa.) rebounded a missed Penn shot, pushed the ball up the floor and found Getty for a buzzer-beating three-pointer that made the score 23-22, Penn, at the half.

In the opening minute of the second half, Getty made two more three-pointers that came just 23 seconds apart and Villanova led 28-23 just 44 seconds into the period. The Quakers drew even at 30-30 just over two minutes later and eventually held the Wildcats scoreless for more than six minutes to go ahead 36-34 midway through the half.

Sarah Bucar scored 11 points to lead Penn and Carrie Biemer had 10 points and seven rebounds. The Quakers shot just 32 percent for the game, including 5-of-23 (22 percent) in the second half.

Villanova continued to thrive when it found chances from inside, scoring 22 points in the paint and making 12-of-22 shots from inside the arc. Kurz finished with eight points and made 4-of-6 from inside the perimeter.

The Wildcats will not return to game action until Thanksgiving Day (November 27) when they play the first of three games in the Paradise Jam Classic in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game on the 27th will be against Wisconsin and begins at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Villanova also plays Baylor on November 28th (3:30 p.m.) and Central Florida (1 p.m.) on the 29th during their tournament stay.

NOTES: Getty has led Villanova in scoring in two of their first three games and is currently averaging 14.7 points per game while shooting 60 percent (15-of-25) from the field and 50 percent (9-of-18) from three-point range ... The last Wildcat game in which both teams scored fewer than 50 points came last season on November 11, 2007 in a 49-47 loss to Loyola (Md.) ... The last time Villanova won with fewer than 50 points came in a 41-37 win over Boston College in the quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Championship on March 6, 2005 ... The 88 combined points in tonight's game was the fewest since that victory over Boston College ... The Wildcats are 34-2 all-time against Penn, including 18-1 at The Palestra ... Tonight's win was the 85th for Villanova in Big Five action and the Wildcats tied Saint Joseph's for the most wins in the history of the City Series ... The Wildcats are shooting 58 percent (39-67) on two-point shots this season and 27 percent (23-85) from three-point range.