VILLANOVA, PA. – The Villanova Wildcats advanced to the WBIT Final Four on Thursday night with a win over the visiting Portland Pilots. With the victory, Villanova improves to 21-14 on the year, while Portland ends its season at 31-5.
With the victory, Villanova will play in the semifinals at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Wildcats are scheduled to play Belmont on Monday, March 31, with a time still to be determined.
Sophomore guard Maddie Webber got the Wildcats going early, scoring six of Villanova's first 10 points. The Wildcats held a 10-6 lead when they used a 6-1 spurt to open-up a 16-7 advantage. Grad student forward Lara Edmanson scored four of the six points on a hook shot and two free throws.
Portland tallied four of the final six points of the period to cut the Wildcat advantage to 18-11 after one quarter of play.
Villanova led 23-16 when the Wildcats scored seven straight points to open-up a 30-16 advantage. The seven points included a three-point field goal by Webber and two lay-ups from junior forward Denae Carter.
Following two free throws by Portland's Alexis Mark that cut the Wildcat lead to 36-24 with 2:25 remaining in the opening half, neither team scored the rest of the quarter and Villanova went to intermission with the 12-point lead.
Webber finished the first half with nine points, while Carter added eight points. Mark had eight points for the Pilots.
The third quarter was all about scoring runs. Portland started the second half on a 9-2 spurt to slice the lead to 38-33. Emme Shearer was dominant in the run for the Pilots, scoring six of the eight points.
After Villanova called a timeout to slow the Portland momentum, the Wildcats responded by scoring nine unanswered points to increase the lead to 47-33. Four different Wildcats scored in the run with Jasmine Bascoe scoring four points and Webber draining a triple.
Portland then out scored the Wildcats 11-6 over the final 4:05 to make it a 53-44 game after three quarters of play.
Villanova put the game away over the first four minutes of the fourth quarter with an 11-2 run that gave the Wildcats a commanding 64-46 lead at the 5:49 mark. After Ryanne Allen buried a three-ball to start the run, Bascoe was dominant scoring eight straight points to put the Wildcats in control
Bascoe led the way in the win with a game-high 20 points to go with eight assists, five rebounds and four steals. Webber tallied 16 points, while Allen had 10 points. Edmanson was the fourth Wildcat in double figures with 10 points.
Portland was paced by Shearer with 17 points and Trista Hull who registered a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
For the game, Villanova was 28-of-62 from the field (45.2%), 5-of-19 from three-point range (26.3%) and 10-of-11 from the foul line (90.9%), while Portland shot 38.5 percent from the floor (20-of-52), 31.3 percent from long distance (5-of-16) and 84.2 percent from the charity stripe (16-of-19). The Pilots owned a slight 35-33 advantage on the backboards.
