OMAHA, NEB. – In the 2024-25 regular season finale on Sunday night, the Villanova Wildcats traveled to Omaha where they fell to the No. 21 Creighton Bluejays by a score of 70-55. With the loss, Villanova falls to 17-13 overall and 11-7 in BIG EAST play, while Creighton improves to 24-5 on the year and 16-2 in league action.
Villanova had an early 5-2 lead when Creighton scored seven unanswered points to take a 9-5 advantage. After going through a stretch where they made 1-of-10 from the field, the Wildcats finished the quarter connecting on three of their final six shots of the period to take a slim 12-11 advantage.
Both teams struggled from long distance in the opening quarter with Villanova going 1-of-7 from three-point range, while Creighton was 0-for-8.
The second quarter was a period of runs. Creighton scored the first six points off the stanza to open-up a 17-12 advantage. Villanova then responded with three straight baskets from
Kaitlyn Orihel,
Denae Carter and
Jasmine Bascoe. The Bascoe field goal gave the Wildcats a 20-18 lead.
Creighton held a 24-23 lead when the Bluejays scored seven of the final nine points of the quarter to take a 31-25 advantage into intermission.
Bascoe led the Wildcats in the first half with 12 points.
After a Bascoe pull-up jumper cut the Bluejays lead to 42-38 with 1:30 to play in the third quarter, Creighton's Lauren Jensen scored five straight points on a conventional three-point play and a lay-up to increase the lead to 47-38.
Bascoe closed out the third period scoring when she scored on a drive to the basket and was fouled. The three-point play sliced the Bluejay advantage to 47-41 after three quarters of play.
The Bluejays put the game away over the first 2:21 of the fourth quarter, when Creighton scored the first 10 points of the period to take a commanding 57-41 lead. Four different Bluejays scored in the spurt, including three-point field goals by Jayme Horan and Morgan Maly.
Following the Creighton spurt, Villanova was not able to get within 10 the rest of the way.
In the loss, Bascoe scored a career-high 27 points on 11-of-20 shooting, including a 4-of-9 effort from three-point range. She also added nine rebounds. Sophomore
Maddie Webber chipped in with 14 points.
Creighton was paced by Maly who had 23 points and Jensen who tallied 17 points.
For the game, Villanova was 24-of-64 from the field (37.5%), 5-of-22 from three-point range (22.7%) and 2-of-3 from the foul line (66.7%), while Creighton shot 45,6 percent from the floor (26-of-57), 27.3 percent from long distance (6-of-22) and 85.7 percent from the charity stripe (12-of-14). The Bluejays owned a 41-33 advantage on the backboards.
