VILLANOVA, PA. – The Villanova Wildcats saw their five-game winning streak come to an end with a 63-55 home loss to the Butler Bulldogs. With the setback, Villanova falls to 8-3 overall and 0-1 in Big East action, while Butler improves to 11-1 on the year and 1-0 in conference action.
Villanova led 34-31 with 7:25 to play in the third quarter, when the Wildcats used a 12-3 run to take a 44-33 advantage at the 3:35 mark. The spurt was highlighted by back-to-back threes by junior forward Mary Gedaka and senior forward Jannah Tucker.
Butler responded by scoring the game's next 10 points to make it a 44-43 game with 24 seconds to play in the third quarter. Katherine Strong led the Bulldog charge scoring six of her team's 10 points.
The Wildcats finished off the third quarter scoring with a three-ball from senior guard Adrianna Hahn from the right wing. The Hahn triple gave Villanova a 47-43 advantage after three quarters of play.
With the score tied at 51-51 with 4:07 remaining, Strong connected on a short jumper in the lane to give Butler a 53-51 lead. On the game's next possession, the Wildcats went back up one at 54-53 when Tucker drained a three from the corner.
After each team failed to score on their next possession, Butler took the lead for good when Michelle Weaver buried a three from the right corner to put the Bulldogs up 56-54 with 2:26 remaining. Following back-to-back missed three-point field goals by senior forward Grace Stant and Tucker, Butler increased its lead to 58-54 when Schickel scored on a jump hook in the lane at the 1:14 mark.
The Bulldogs would go four-of-four from the foul line over the final 30 seconds to seal the victory.
Hahn led Villanova in the loss with 16 points to go with a game-high six assists, while Tucker had 15 points, including four three-point field goals. Jekot finished
with 11 points and Gedaka reached double figures with 10 points. Gedaka also led Villanova on the boards with nine caroms.
Butler was paced by Schickel who scored a game-high 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting and nine rebounds. Strong also reached double figures with 15 points.
For the game, Villanova was 18-of-55 from the field (32.7%), 11-of-38 from three-point range (28.9%) and 8-of-11 from the foul line (72.7%), while Butler shot 45.1 percent from the floor (23-of-51), 25.0 percent from behind the arc and 66.7 percent from the charity stripe (14-of-21). The Bulldogs dominated the backboards by a 46-24 margin.
Villanova returns to action on Monday, Dec. 31, with a home game versus Xavier. Tip-off at the Finneran Pavilion is set for 1 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova had an assist on 15 of its 18 made field goals…The Wildcats have now made double digit three-point field goals in six of the 11 games…Villanova falls to 5-1 at home this season…Adrianna Hahn moved past Michele Thornton and into 17th place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,264 points…Villanova leads the all-time series with Butler by a 9-3 count.
