Villanova Gets JMU In Third Round of WNIT
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There is only one area college basketball team still playing as we move into late March.
The Villanova University women's basketball team has advanced to the third round of the WNIT and on Thursday the Wildcats will visit James Madison.
Villanova got here by picking up road wins in its first two games. First the Wildcats beat Princeton (59-53) last Friday and then on Sunday they pulled out a 56-51 win at Drexel.
"So far, really happy," Villanova head coach Harry Perretta tells KYW Newsradio. "I mean to be able to win both games on the road, that's even more thrilling."
Listen to the entire interview with Villanova's Harry Perretta:
The wins to start the WNIT have improved Villanova to 18-14 on the season, this after the Wildcats started 4-8.
"They're gelling," Perretta says of his team. "I mean we were a young team all year. We had some ups and downs and we started to gel a little bit towards the end of the year but we played some very good teams. Now we're playing teams that are more comparable to us and we just seem to be gelling."
Junior guard Alex Louin and sophomore guard Adrianna Hahn lead the Wildcats in scoring with both players averaging 12.8 ppg.
James Madison hails from the Colonial Athletic Association (same conference as Drexel) and the Dukes are 26-8 this season. They've been home throughout the WNIT to this point, picking up wins over Radford and Virginia.
"They're very athletic," Perretta says. "They rebound the ball well. They have an outstanding player (redshirt senior guard Precious Hall) who averages close to (24) points a game. So when you have a player like that, you can win a lot of games because if a game gets close, she takes the game over."
The winner of this game will play the winner of Indiana and SMU in the quarterfinals.
Villanova and JMU get underway at 7:00pm on Thursday down in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
