INDIANAPOLIS – On Wednesday evening at Hinkle Fieldhouse, Villanova rallied in the fourth quarter to tally a 63-59 road win over the Butler Bulldogs. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 13-10 overall and 7-4 in BIG EAST play, while Butler falls to 12-13 on the year and 2-10 in league action.
Villanova made seven of its first 10 shots, including three triples and raced to a 17-4 lead midway through the opening quarter. Freshman point guard Jasmine Bascoe led the early charge with seven points.
Butler came back and controlled the last five minutes of the first quarter, out scoring the Wildcats 13-0. The Bulldog surge tied the game at 17-17 after one quarter of play.
The second quarter was a back and forth with neither team able to open-up more than a three-point lead. Each team shot 50.0 percent from the field in the second stanza with Villanova going 7-of-14 and Butler 6-of-12.
After Wildcat guard Bronagh Power-Cassidy drained a three-ball to tie the game at 33-33, Butler's Lily Carmody finished the first half scoring with two free throws. The Carmody foul shots gave the Bulldogs a 35-33 lead at the half.
Bascoe led Villanova in the first half with 10 points, while Power-Cassidy had eight points. Kilyn McGuff led the Bulldogs with 14 first half points and Riley Makalusky added 12 points.
Following a three-point field goal by Makalusky that gave Butler a 41-35 lead with 4:45 to play in the third quarter, Villanova finished the period on a 10-4 spurt to tie the game at 45-45 after three. Sophomore guard Maddie Webber was outstanding in run, scoring seven of the 10 points on a three-point field and two pull-up jump shots. Senior guard Kaitlyn Orihel added a triple.
The game was tied at 51-51 at the halfway point of the fourth quarter, when Butler scored four straight points on a free throw by Carmody and a triple from Lily Zeinstra to take a 55-51 advantage. With the momentum on Butler's side, the Villanova duo of Webber and junior Denae Carter took over and combined to score the next eight points to give the Wildcats a 59-55 lead with 2:29 remaining.
After the Carter bucket that put Villanova up 59-55, neither team was able to score for the next 2:42. Webber ended the scoreless stretch when she split a pair at the line to give her team a 60-55 lead.
Butler cut the Villanova lead to 61-57 on Zeinstra lay-up and then forced a Villanova turnover. Zeinstra made it a one possession game at 61-59 when she connected on two free throws.
The Bulldogs forced another Wildcat turnover and had a chance to take the lead, but Zeinstra's three was off target with nine seconds to play. Villanova put the game on ice when Bascoe made two free throws with 6.2 seconds on the clock.
Webber led the Wildcats in the win with 19 points, while Bascoe finished with 16 points and six rebounds. Carter was the third Wildcat in double figures with 10 points. She also had six rebounds.
Butler was paced by McGuff who had a double-double with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Makalusky finished with 15 points.
For the game, Villanova was 26-of-57 from the field (45.6%), 7-of-20 from three-point range (35.0%) and 4-of-6 from the foul line (66.7%), while Butler shot 37.7 percent form the floor (20-of-53), 38.1 percent from long distance (8-of-21) and 84.6 percent from the charity stripe (11-of-13).
Villanova returns home on Saturday afternoon to play host to the Creighton Bluejays. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
