Philadelphia, Pa. (December 30, 2006)?Villanova knocked down four consecutive three-pointers to begin the game and the Wildcats never looked back en route to a 62-46 victory over Manhattan Saturday afternoon. Villanova's Stacie Witman was the Wildcats' leading scorer with a career high 23 points. Villanova improves to 6-7 on the season, while the Lady Jaspers drop to 4-8 overall.
The Wildcats came out scorching from behind the arc to begin the game and opened up an early 9-2 advantage. Manhattan climbed back to within six points at 17-11 after a Jenna Franciosa field goal, but Witman's perfect shooting half (five for five) helped ?Nova extend their lead to as much 16 points. Villanova kept up the impressive three-point shooting for the remainder of the half, shooting 50 percent, helping the Wildcats to a 32-19 halftime advantage.
In the second half Manhattan cut Villanova's lead to nine points on two occasions. Franciosa and Gabrielle Cottrell hit consecutive shots to begin the half to trim ?Nova's lead to 32-23, but the Wildcats scored 11 of the game's next 17 points to up their margin to 43-29. With just under 11 minutes remaining Cottrell hit from three to cut Villanova's lead to 43-32. However the home side answered with a 13-0 run, finished by a three-pointer from Briana Weiss, that increased their lead to 56-32 with 5:50 remaining. The Lady Jaspers ended the game with a strong 14-6 run to provide the game's final margin.
Manhattan was impressive in the paint throughout the game, scoring 22 of their 46 points in the key. Michelle Pacheco played her second straight strong game, scoring 11 points, while Cottrell scored in double figures for the second straight game with 11 points as well.
After finishing their five game road swing, Manhattan will get to enjoy the comforts of Draddy Gym for the next the next three games. Manhattan begins the home stand against Iona on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
