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Villanova Women Open Big East Play At Butler

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Villanova women's basketball team plays its Big East opener tonight out in Indianapolis as the Wildcats match-up with Butler.

The Wildcats are 6-4 as they head into conference play.

"I think we're probably about one game ahead of where I thought we'd be," Villanova head coach Harry Perretta tells KYW Newsradio. "It's a very inexperienced team. It's not necessarily a young team, but it's inexperienced. We have a lot of kids who are juniors who are getting to play for the first time and they're showing their inexperience. So we're hoping we can just get better as the season goes on."

Listen to the entire interview with Villanova's Harry Perretta


The Wildcats are led by the reigning Big 5 Player of the Year in senior point guard Caroline Coyer. She leads the team in scoring (14.4 ppg), rebounding (6.5 a game), assists (50) and steals (16).

"She was on the Pan Am team this summer and she's basically carrying us on offense and defense," Perretta says. "And her sister Katherine is also doing the same. Now Katherine doesn't score the ball as much (7.0 ppg), but her experience in playing really helps us. So those two are really carrying us at this point."

Tonight the Wildcats match-up with a Butler team that is 5-6 and also playing its conference opener.

"Butler's very similar to us," Perretta says. "They play basketball like we've played it for years. They are very deliberate, they don't make a lot of mistakes. They run their offense, they chew up the clock. They keep the score low. So it's almost like playing a mirror of ourselves. So it's going to be a difficult game."

Tonight's game tips off at 7:00pm.

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