Last night, the Villanova took a quick road trip to square off against City 6 opponent, Drexel. After battling for 45 minutes, the Wildcats suffered a heartbreaking 54-52 overtime loss to their crosstown rival. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the ‘Cats, and the loss dropped their record to 3-4 on the season.

Both squads started off hot in the first period, as the Wildcats went on a 10-2 run for an early 10-4 lead with about five and a half minutes to play. Not to be outdone, the Dragons conducted a 9-2 run of their own to take a slight 13-12 lead. Both teams kept up the high-paced action throughout the period, as Drexel held the lead, 20-16. 

In the second quarter, the Wildcats outscored the Dragons, 10-9. Redshirt freshman forward Madison Siegrist scored 7 of the ‘Cats’ 10 in the quarter to keep her crew afloat. Even with the previous Big East Rookie of the Week’s exceptional performance in the period, Drexel held a 29-26 lead going into the intermission.

To start the second half, Drexel made a 13-2 run to race out to a 42-30 lead with less than four minutes to play in the third. Holding Siegrist without a bucket proved critical for Drexel to maintain momentum, as the Wildcats went into the fourth trailing, 42-34.

While Drexel made its 13-2 run in the third, ‘Nova saved its own run for when it counted in the fourth. Siegrist along with senior forward Mary Gedaka led the charge to outscore Drexel 12-4 in the final frame of regulation. With 37 seconds to play, the ‘Cats’ senior captain Gedaka scored the game-tying layup, which led to forcing overtime with the score knotted at 46.

In overtime, the back and forth contest continued as both teams traded buckets for the first three-plus minutes of free basketball. After a drought of over a minute and a half, Drexel forward Bailey Greenberg scored the go-ahead layup with four seconds to play in the game. Following a Gedaka turnover, Greenberg hit one last free throw to ice the game for Drexel.

For the Wildcats, Siegrist led all scorers with 24 points to go along with five rebounds of 7-14 shooting. Gedaka notched a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds in a team-leading 44 out of 45 possible minutes in the matchup.

After a couple of days off, the Wildcats will be back home in the Finneran Pavilion for a Big 5 matchup against St. Joe’s. Tip-off is set for this Saturday at 1 p.m.