UNCASVILLE, CONN. – In the quarterfinal round of the BIG EAST Tournament on Saturday afternoon at the Mohegan Sun Arena, the No. 4 seed Villanova Wildcats lost a hard-fought battle to the Marquette Golden Eagles by a score of 50-48. With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 18-12, while Marquette improves to 23-7.
The first half was tightly contested with neither team able to lead by more than five points. Marquette had its largest lead of the game at 21-16 at the 5:58 mark of the second quarter, while Villanova had a five-point lead early in the game at 8-3.
Defense was the theme of the first half with both teams struggling to score. Vilanova connected on 11-of-33 from the field and were 0-for-8 from three in the game's first 10 minutes. The Golden Eagles shot 38.5 percent from the floor (10-of-26) and 33.3 percent from three (2-of-6).
Junior guard Lucy Olsen led Villanova in the first half with 10 points. Marquette was paced by Liza Karlen who had seven points.
After junior guard Zanai Jones gave Villanova a 31-28 lead with 5:17 to play in the third quarter, the Wildcats would miss their last eight shots of the period and go scoreless the rest of the quarter. Marquette would take advantage of the Villanova scoreless stretch and score the last nine points of the third quarter and lead 37-31 after three. Karlen led the way for Marquette scoring six of the nine points.
Villanova scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to take a 39-37 lead. The eight points included lay-ups by junior guard Kaitlyn Orihel and freshman guard Maddie Webber, and two short jump shots by Olsen.
Following the opening spurt by the Wildcats, Marquette scored four straight points on free throws by Frannie Hottinger and a jumper by Rose Nkumu to give the Golden Eagles a 41-39 advantage with 4:47 to play.
The Wildcats took their final lead of the game at 45-43 with 3:03 remaining on a turnaround jumper by Olsen. After the Olsen bucket, Marquette tied the game on the next possession when Skylar Forbes made two free throws. Marquette got a defensive stop and took the lead for the good when Mackenzie Hare drained a three from straight away and the Golden Eagles led 48-45 at the 2:10 mark.
Trailing 50-45 with 1:17 on the clock, Olsen buried a three-ball from the right wing to slice the Marquette advantage to 50-48. After each team failed to score on its next possessions, the Golden Eagles had the ball with 35.8 seconds left. Villanova decided to play the possession and not foul. The Wildcats came up with the stop they needed and called timeout to advance the ball to the front court with 5.8 seconds on the clock.
Out of the timeout, Villanova got the ball to Olsen whose driving lay-up was off target as time expired.
Olsen led the Wildcats in the loss with 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting, including a 2-of-4 effort from three-point range. Junior center Christina Dalce had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Marquette was paced by Karlen with 13 points and eight rebounds, while Forbes added 12 points and nine rebounds. Hare was the third Golden Eagle in double figures with 10 points.
For the game, Villanova was 22-of-63 from the field (34.9%), 2-of-15 from three-point range (13.3%) and 2-of-5 from the foul line (40.0%), while Marquette shot 33.3 percent from the floor (16-of-48), 40.0 percent from downtown (4-of-10) and 73.7 percent from the charity stripe (14-of-19). Marquette owned a 42-32 advantage on the backboards.
NOTES: Villanova falls to 38-38 all-time in the BIG EAST Tournament…The Wildcats are now 4-7 all-time as the No. 4 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament…The three games this season between Villanova and Marquette were decided by a total of eight points…Villanova falls to 5-5 all-time in games played at the Mohegan Sun Arena…Lucy Olsen recorded her 21st game of 20 points or more this season…Christina Dalce registered her 10th double-double of the year tonight…Dalce moved past Laura Sweeney and into second place on Villanova's all-time blocked shot list with 159 career blocks.
