Villanova Women Look To Stay Sharp At Butler
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Villanova women's basketball team will bring an 11-2 record into Wednesday's Big East match-up with Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Wildcats are 2-1 in the conference and head coach Harry Perretta likes what he's gotten out of his team so far.
"They play really well together," Perretta tells KYW Newsradio. "They're young, they make a lot of mistakes, but they play hard all the time and when you play hard all the time, you give yourself a chance to win."
You also give yourself a chance to win when you play great defense. So far this season, Villanova is holding opponents to 36% shooting and 56.8 points a game.
While the Wildcats are young, they do have one key senior in guard Devon Kane who leads the team in scoring at 11.4 ppg. She has also dished out 60 assists (second on the team).
"She's been really steady," Perretta says. "I mean, she's been playing like a senior. She's the only senior that really plays on the team, so she has to be steady because the other kids are young and they're inconsistent. So they look to her to keep them under control, she gets them in the right spots and she's done a really good job of keeping the whole team up and playing hard."
Butler brings a 7-7 record into this game and they are also 2-1 in the Big East.
"They score the ball," Perretta says. "They play good defense. They play a lot like you see the Butler men's team. They run a lot of different things on offense. It's going to be a very difficult game for us."
Villanova has played well on the road this season, winning six of seven games.
This will be the first-ever meeting between these two programs, as this is Butler's first year in the Big East.
Tip-off at Hinkle is set for 7:00pm.
You can follow Matt on twitter @mattleonkyw.