VILLANOVA – The Wildcats secured the No. 2 seed in the upcoming conference tournament by defeating Butler 66-46 on Sunday afternoon. The Bulldogs only trailed by four points at the half, but Villanova's offense would spark in the second allowing the Wildcats to record the 20-point win.

Tori Schickel was Butler's top scoring option at The Pavilion. The freshman scored a team-high 17 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for a double-double. Joining Schickel in double figures was guard Sydney Buck. The shooting guard scored nine of her 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Butler shot 36 percent from the field for the game (18-49), but just 25 percent from 3-point range (3-12). Nova's shooting percentages were not much better however they hit nine 3-pointers compared to just three from BU.

Free throw shooting also played a large role in today's outcome. Nova hit 15 of their 16 attempts (93.8%) while the 'Dawgs were limited to just 7-of-9 shooting from the line.

Top performers for Villanova included Alex Louin and Adrianna Hahn. The duo shared the team lead in scoring with 20 each. Both Louin and Hahn came in off the bench due to Senior Day. Louin was in the box score with seven rebounds, five assists and two steals. Meanwhile Hahn got hot in the second half to hit a team-high six 3-point field goals.

The game got off to a very slow start as Taylor Buford entered the game off the bench to score the first field goal of the game for Butler at the 5:56 mark in the first quarter. Tori Schickel came up with the final three points of the opening frame.

Butler shot 17 percent from the field (2-12) in the opening 10 minutes, but Villanova was just as bad shooting 15 percent (2-13). Free throws led to the Nova lead as the Wildcats connected on all six of their attempts in the first quarter.

Langlois and Ward joined Buford and Schickel in the scoring column in the second quarter to cut the lead down to just two points, but the Bulldogs faced an uphill battle at the media timeout 14-9. Butler ended the second quarter on a 6-2 scoring run. That stretched allowed BU to win the second quarter 12-10 and go into the half only trailing by four.

Hahn's 3-point shooting paired with Louin's aggressiveness allowed the home team to break open a large lead heading into the fourth quarter. Villanova outscored BU 19-11 in the third and exploded for 26 points in the fourth to ice the win.

Butler played without Michelle Weaver and Belle Obert who missed today's game with a foot injury. Obert is listed as day-to-day.

Butler will now head into the 2016 BIG EAST Conference Tournament as the No. 9 seed. They will face the No. 8 seed at 5:30 PM on Saturday, March 5. The action can be viewed live on the BIG EAST Digital Network.