BAHAMAS – The Villanova Wildcats took on the No. 16 North Carolina Tar Heels in the semifinal round of the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament on Sunday afternoon. North Carolina led wire to wire to earn a 53-36 victory. With the loss, Villanova falls to 4-2 on the season, while North Carolina improves to 5-1.

Villanova will now take on Baylor in the tournament's third place game on Monday at 2:30 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPNU.

The Tar Heels led 7-4 with 5:05 to play in the opening quarter, when North Carolina out scored the Wildcats by a 10-3 count the rest of the period to lead 17-7 after one.

Villanova made just three of 13 shots in the first quarter, while North Carolina was 7-of-16 from the floor and 3-of-5 from three-point range.  Lara Edmanson led Villanova in the early going scoring four of the team's seven first quarter points.

North Carolina scored six of the first eight points of the second quarter to open-up a 23-9 advantage. Villanova then responded with a lay-up by Edmanson and a three by Maddie Webber to make it a 23-14 game.

North Carolina's Alyssa Ustby was dominant in the first half with 11 points and 12 rebounds. The Tar Heels were 13-of-29 from the field and 3-of-6 from three in the first half and led 30-18 at intermission.

The Tar Heels dominated the third quarter out scoring the Wildcats,14-5, to take a commanding 44-23 lead after three quarters of play. North Carolina held Villanova without a third quarter field goal on 0-for-7 shooting. All five of the Wildcats points in the third quarter came from the foul line with Lara Edmanson going 3-of-4 and Jasmine Bascoe 2-of-4.

Webber made three triples in the fourth quarter, but Villanova was never able to get within 19 and the Tar Heels cruised to the victory.

In the loss, Webber had 12 points on four three-point field goals, while Edmanson reached double figures with 11 points to go with seven rebounds. Maddie Burke pulled-down six rebounds for the Wildcats.

North Carolina was paced by Ustby with 14 points and 11 rebounds and Lexi Donarski who also had 14 points.

For the game, Villanova was 12-of-51 from the field (23.5%), 5-of-18 from three (27.8%) and 7-of-10 from the foul line (70.0%), while the Tar Heels shot 40.0 percent from the floor (22-of-55), 29.4 percent from long distance (5-of-17) and 66.7 percent from the charity stripe (4-of-6). The Wildcats owned a 39-37 advantage on the backboards.