VILLANOVA, PA. – The Villanova Wildcats captured their 20
th all-time Philadelphia Big 5 women's championship with a 76-70 win over the visiting Saint Joseph's Hawks on Sunday afternoon in the championship game of the Big 5 Classic. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 8-2 on the year, while the Hawks fall to 6-3.
Villanova led 44-43 midway through the third quarter, when the Wildcats scored seven of the game's next nine points to take a 51-45 advantage. Three different Wildcats scored in the spurt, highlighted by
Brynn McCurry's three-point field goal from straight away.
Two free throws by Rhian Stokes cut the Villanova lead to 55-52 with 23 second to play in the third period, before McCurry made two foul shots of her own to give Villanova a 57-52 advantage after three.
After Gabby Casey drained a triple from the wing with 5:35 to play to slice the Villanova lead to 65-63, the Wildcats used a jumper from sophomore guard
Jasmine Bascoe and a three-ball from freshman
Brooke Bender to open-up a 70-63 lead with 2:27 on the clock.
Saint Joseph's missed three shots over the next 2:32 and Villanova increased its lead to 72-63 on two McCurry free throws with 48 seconds remaining. The Wildcats went 3-of-4 from the line over the final 25 seconds to seal the win.
In the victory, McCurry tied her career-high with 21 points. She was 6-of-11 from the field, 3-of-3 from three-point range and 6-of-6 from the foul line. Bascoe had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists, while
Kelsey Joens tallied 13 points, including three triples.
Denae Carter was the fourth Wildcat in double figures with 10 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds.
Saint Joseph's was paced by Stokes with a game-high 23 points and Casey who had 19 points.
For the game, Villanova was 25-of-60 from the field (41.7%), 13-of-24 from three-point range (54.2%) and 13-of-16 from the foul line (81.3%), while Saint Joseph's shot 41.0 percent from the floor (25-of-61), 50.0 percent from long distance (8-of-16) and 80.0 percent from the charity stripe (12-of-15).
Villanova will now be off until Dec. 19, when they play host to Seton Hall. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
