Villanova Women's Hoops Looks To Keep Rolling In WNIT

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Villanova women's basketball team will be back on the court tonight at the Pavilion as they take on St. John's in the Round of 16 in the WNIT.

Villanova is 21-13 after beating Maine and Old Dominion in the tournament's first two rounds.  The Wildcats were left out of the NCAA Tournament field despite winning 16 of their last 22 games and going 12-6 in the Big East, but head coach Harry Perretta says they figured the WNIT would be their landing spot.

"We knew pretty much that we had to win the Big East Tournament to get in (to the NCAA Tournament) and we came up a little short (lost in the semifinals)," Perretta tells KYW Newsradio. "So we kind of knew we'd be on this road. The kids were looking forward to it because we took those injuries early in the year and we were 3-7 and they just wanted to prove to themselves, and to everybody else, that we had a pretty good team when we were healthy."

Listen: Harry Perretta with KYW's Matt Leon

Perretta breaks down what's allowed the Wildcats to win their first two games of the tournament.

"We've been balanced scoring," Perretta says. "(Junior) Caroline Coyer, (senior) Emily Leer, Alex Louin's been stepping up as a freshman, (junior) Katherine Coyer. So we've been getting some balanced scoring from a lot of our players, so that's been the key right now."

Caroline Coyer paces the Wildcats in scoring. The guard is pouring in 13.4 points a game and this week she was named the Big 5 Player of the Year.

Now the Wildcats are quite familiar with tonight's opponent, St. John's. Both teams call the Big East home and they played twice during the regular season.

"I think it makes it a little harder for us," Perretta says. "Because we're a motion-type team and the more you see us, the more you get used to the way we play. We have an advantage when teams haven't seen us and it proved it in the Maine game and the Old Dominion game. When teams haven't seen us it takes a little longer for them to adjust, but St. John's I don't think has to worry about that."

The teams split their two regular season meetings. Villanova won 81-69 at the Pavilion on January 25th. The Red Storm captured the rematch in Jamaica, New York, 56-51 on February 20th.

The winner of this game takes on the winner of Duquesne and West Virginia in the quarterfinals.

Tonight's game tips off at 7:00.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.