For 10 minutes, it appeared that Villanova was going to be locked into another thriller with James Madison, just like the two teams had done when they previously met in the third round of last season's WNIT.
Both teams were neck-and-neck, until the Wildcats settled in on both ends of the court for a strong second quarter performance. James Madison was at the brunt of a ferocious scoring streak and from there Villanova pushed the lead into double figures and kept it there for most of the game.
Then the Dukes' late comeback bid started, but the Wildcats were able to stave them off to win 60-57.