PHILADELPHIA – On Sunday afternoon in the second round of the WBIT, the visiting Villanova Wildcats rallied for a thrilling 62-60 win over the Saint Joseph's Hawks in the second round of the WBIT. With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 20-14 on the season, while Saint Joseph's ends its season at 24-10.
Villanova will now advance to the quarterfinal round on Thursday, March 27, and take on the winner of the Seton Hall/Portland game.
Saint Joseph's controlled play early, racing to a 16-8 lead. Talya Brugler led the early Hawk charge with eight of her team's 16 points. Villanova rebounded and scored seven of the final eight points of the period to make it a 17-15 game after one quarter of play.
Grad student guard Bronagh Power-Cassidy drained her second three of the quarter during the stretch and freshman point guard Jasmine Bascoe added two driving lay-ups.
With the score tied at 21-21 midway through the second quarter, Villanova scored five quick points on a three-ball by junior Ryanne Allen and a lay-up from Lara Edmanson to grab a 26-21 advantage.
After each team made a pair at the line, Edmanson closed out the first half scoring with a 10-foot jumper. The Edmanson bucket sent the teams to halftime with the Wildcats leading 33-28.
Eight different Wildcats scored in the first half with Edmanson and Power-Cassidy leading the way with six points each.
The Hawks started the third quarter by scoring the first eight points to take a 36-33 lead. Brugler and Laura Ziegler scored four points each with all eight coming in the paint. Bascoe ended the Saint Joseph's run and the Villanova's scoreless stretch that lasted 3:09 with two free throws that cut the lead to 36-35.
Following the Bascoe foul shots, neither team was able to open-up more than a four point lead the rest of the quarter and the Hawks led 43-42 after three.
Saint Joseph's held a 52-50 advantage with 5:35 to play, when the Hawks scored six of the game's next eight points to take a 58-52 lead at the 2:16 mark. With the Hawks on the verge of pulling away, Bascoe drained a triple from the wing to make it a 58-55 game with 1:51 to go. On the game's next possession, Saint Joseph's went back up five at 60-55 on short jumper by Mackenzie Smith.
The Hawks led 60-55 with 42 seconds remaining, when they turned the ball over with Villanova's Maddie Webber coming up with the key steal. Webber then pushed the ball up the court and made it a one possession game at 60-58 with 38 seconds to go when she buried a deep three from the right wing.
Webber came up with another steal on the Hawks next possession with 11 seconds left to play. Villanova elected to not call a timeout and Webber advanced the ball to Bascoe who found Maddie Burke in the corner who drained the game-winner triple with 4.3 seconds remaining.
Saint Joseph's had one timeout left and used it to advance the ball to the front court. Out of the timeout, the Hawks got the ball to Brugler on the block. As Brugler made an offensive move, the ball hit her foot and went out of bounds.
Villanova's Kaitlyn Orihel made one of two from the foul and the Wildcats inbounded the ball to seal the win.
In the victory, Bascoe led the Wildcats with 15 points, while Burke finished with nine points, including a 3-of-5 effort from three-point range. Jaliyah Green came off the bench to add seven points and seven rebounds, while Denae Carter chipped in with seven points and five rebounds.
Saint Joseph's was paced by Ziegler with 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, while Brugler had 18 points. Smith tallied 13 points and five caroms.
For the game, Villanova was 21-of-58 from the field (36.2%), 11-of-26 from three-point range (42.3%) and 9-of-12 from the foul line (75.0%), while the Hawks shot 46.0 percent from the floor (23-of-50), 10.0 percent from long distance (1-of-10) and 76.5 percent from the charity stripe (9-of-12). The Hawks owned a 34-28 advantage on the backboards.
