Gedaka and Louin’s Hot Fourth Quarter Propels Villanova Over St. John’s

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA, Pa. — Mary Gedaka and Alex Louin lit the nets in the fourth quarter Friday afternoon here at Jake Nevin field House before an Education Day crowd of 1,709 school students to help Villanova outscore St. John’s 29-11 and surge to a 69-52 Big East victory.

Both Wildcats were perfect in the final period — Louin making all four of her three-ball attempts while Gedaka made all three field goal efforts.

On the complete tally, Gedaka, whose mother Lisa Angelotti starred at Villanova (19-5, 9-4 Big East) in the late 1980s, scored 21, shooting 8-for-10 from the field, while Louin had 15 points and 11 rebounds. 

Jannah Tucker was also in double figures scoring 13 against St. John’s (14-11, 7-7) as the Wildcats earned a split with the Express having lost last month 70-64 up in New York.

The win put the Wildcats into third place in the conference heading into Sunday’s game here (2 p.m.) against Seton Hall.

Alisha Kebbe, a graduate of Neumann-Goretti in her homecoming visit,  had 15 points for the visitors while Maya Singleton had 11 points and 18 rebounds, and Tiana England had 12 points.

Tamesha Alexander, a native Philadelphian and graduate of the Shipley School, did not get into the game.

The lead changed 11 times and the game tied four times with Villanova only committing five turnovers and outscoring the option 15-2 in transition.

The Wildcats also connected on 11 from beyond the arc while St. John’s had five.

The Express jumped from a 10-0 start to plus 11 early before Villanova rallied though a poor shooting third quarter  dropped the Wildcats behind by six before another rally carried them to a one-point lead at the end of the period.

“We missed four threes in.a row at St. John’s when we lost, today (Louin) made four threes in a row.,” said Villanova coach Harry Perretta.

“It’s 10-0 but we missed 10 shots,” he said. “You have to make shots, I keep saying that. In the third quarter, we fell behind because we were 3-for-17 and we’re only down four.

“I told the kids if you just relax and make a couple of threes that we’ve been getting the game will change and it did.”

As for Gedaka’s performance, she said, “I try to bring a lot of energy when I’m coming off the bench. So I just tried to take the opportunity that the defense gave me, especially get the ball to my teammates when they were open, especially when (St. John’s) looked to double down on me.

“That really helped us and opened up the game for us. This was a game we really needed for Big East play and to stay high in the standings.”