STORRS, CONN. –- The Villanova Wildcats traveled to Storrs, Conn., on Wednesday night where they fell to the No. 10 Connecticut Huskies by a score of 67-46. With the loss, Villanova falls to 17-11 overall and 10-7 in BIG EAST play, while the Huskies improve to 25-5 on the year and 17-0 in conference action.
Connecticut started quickly racing to an early 10-2 lead. After committing four turnovers to start the game, the Wildcats settled down and scored eight of the game's next 10 points to make it a 12-10 game. Junior guard Kaitlyn Orihel led the Wildcat charge with two three-point field goals.
The Huskies got a pull-up jumper by Paige Bueckers and a free throw by Aaliyah Edwards to end the first quarter scoring and give Connecticut a 15-10 lead after one.
Connecticut used a 16-6 run midway through the second quarter to open-up a 31-18 advantage with 4:08 to play. Bueckers led the spurt with six points, while Edwards added four points. The Huskies would use the run to take a 35-24 lead into halftime.
Wildcat junior guard Zanai Jones was outstanding in the second period scoring 10 of Villanova's 14 points. Jones was 4-of-5 from the field and 2-of-2 from the foul line.
Bueckers led Connecticut in the first half with 16 points.
Trailing 49-37 to early in the fourth quarter, Villanova scored seven of the next nine points to make it a 51-44 game at the 7:45 mark. The seven Wildcat points included a three-ball and short jumper by Orihel and a lay-up by senior Bella Runyan.
Following a Connecticut timeout, the Huskies ran off 10 unanswered points to take a 61-44 lead with 4:04 remaining. Bueckers led the Huskies in the spurt with six of the 10 points. Villanova was not able to get within 15 after the decisive run.
In the loss, Orihel led Villanova with 15 points to go with five rebounds. She was 6-of-10 from the field and 3-of-5 from three-point range. Jones was the second Wildcat in double figures with 10 points.
Connecticut was paced by Bueckers who had a game-high 31 points and Edwards with a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds.
For the game, Villanova was 18-of-58 from the field (31.0%), 4-of-23 from three-point range (17.4%) and 6-of-6 from the foul line, while Connecticut shot 44.4 percent from the floor (24-of-54), 26.7 percent from downtown (4-of-15) and 83.3 percent from the charity stripe (15-of-18). The Huskies owned a 40-30 advantage on the backboards.
Villanova will close out the 2023-24 regular season on Sunday, March 3, with a home game against the DePaul Blue Demons. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.
NOTES: Villanova is now 8-7 on the road this year…Tonight was the first time that Villanova has played at Gampel Pavilion since Jan. 5, 2011…Lucy Olsen moved past Kathie Beisel and into 15th place on Villanova's all-time scoring list with 1,333 career points…The 17 turnovers committed by Villanova tie a season-high…Zanai Jones returned to the line-up tonight after missing the last three games due to an injury…Villanova had an assist on 13 of its 18 made field goals.
