Dec. 11, 2002
Final Stats
AMHERST, MASS. - On Wednesday, Dec. 11, in Amherst, Mass., the Villanova women's basketball team suffered its first loss of the 2002-2003 season, falling 55-50 to the University of Massachusetts. With the loss, the Wildcats are now 6-1 overall on the season. The Minutewomen improve to 7-1 on the year with Wednesday's victory.
Villanova led 27-20 with 1:52 left in the first half, but UMass closed the half on a 5-0 run to go into intermission trailing by only two points, 27-25.
With the score tied at 31-31 with 16:15 to play, the Minutewomen went on an 8-2 spurt to lead, 39-33, at the 12:41 mark.
Down 51-44 with 4:21 remaining in the contest, Villanova began to rally. Senior forward Nicole Druckenmiller converted a conventional three-point play, and junior guard Courtney Mix nailed a three-pointer to close the gap to 53-30 with 2:04 left.
After a defensive stop by the Wildcats, senior guard Trish Juhline was fouled grabbing a rebound, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. Following another defensive stop by Villanova, Druckenmiller misfired on an open look from the arc with 17 seconds remaining.
From there, UMass hit two-of-four from the free throw line down the stretch to seal the victory, 55-50.
Senior forward Katie Davis paced the `Cats with 16 points, shooting six-of-16 from the field and four-of-10 from three-point range. Juhline tallied 13 points, hitting five-of-14 from the floor, and three-of-nine from the arc.
Mix also scored in double-figures for Villanova with 10 points in addition to recording 10 rebounds, six assists and four steals. Winding down the scoring was Druckenmiller with five points, and Jana Rediger, Jennifer Hilgenberg and Kelly Nash with two points apiece.
For the Minutewomen in the win, Jennifer Butler scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. In addition, Ebony Pegues scored 15 points with all 15 coming in the second half, and Nekole Smith had 14 points.
Villanova shot 20-of-58 (34.5 percent) from the field, eight-for-31 (25.8 percent) from three-point range, and two-of-four (50 percent) from the foul line for the game. UMass was 20-of-48 (41.7 percent) from the floor, three-of-nine (33.3 percent) from three-point range, and 12-of-17 (70.6 percent) from the foul line. The Minutewomen outrebounded the Wildcats 42-23 in the contest.
Villanova will get back into action on December 21, hosting Temple at The Pavilion at 2:00 p.m.
