After dropping the season series against Creighton at home on Tuesday, Seton Hall traveled to the City of Brotherly Love to face the #15 Villanova Wildcats.
The game was neck-and-neck for the entirety of the first quarter with three ties before a Lauren Park-Lane triple put the Pirates up by three with 5:19 remaining, which was the largest lead so far. There were three more ties that followed, and the Wildcats squeaked past with a one-point advantage after ten minutes.
Tied at 25, Villanova started their domination with a 9-0 burst led by four points from Maddie Burke. The initial run became a 19-3 run to take a commanding 44-28 lead into the half in what was once a close match.
Sidney Cooks led the Pirates with ten points in the first half, followed by nine points from Park-Lane, though Maddy Siegrist led all scorers with 22 points in the half.
Siegrist opened the second half with the first eight points, bringing her total to 30 with 7:30 left in the third quarter. Lucy Olsen capped the 10-0 run with a close jumper. The deficit for the Hall was 65-38, and a 9-0 burst capped off by a last-second score from Lynn Hagans brought the lead below 20 for the first time since halftime.
The Pirates simply could not keep up as the lead only came down to 17 points before Siegrist and Villanova kept their foot on the gas. Seton Hall went on to drop their second straight game, falling to the Wildcats 99-65.
Cooks led with 21 points for The Hall, while Park-Lane followed with 20 points, six assists, and five rebounds. Jala Jordan added nine points on 3-for-3 shooting. Siegrist, the nation’s leading scorer, scored a Big East record 50 points on 20-for-26 shooting to go with ten rebounds, giving Villanova the big win.
Seton Hall falls to 8-7 in conference play and 15-10 overall as the team attempts to make a run for an NCAA tournament bid. They will return to the hardwood against DePaul on Feb. 13 at Walsh Gymnasium at 7 p.m.
Thomas Donnelly can be reached at thomas.donnelly@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @_tommyd023.
