UNCASVILLE, CONN. – In the quarterfinal round of the BIG EAST Tournament on Saturday afternoon at the Mohegan Sun Arena, the five-seed Villanova Wildcats tallied a 73-66 win over the 4-seeded Marquette Golden Eagles. With the victory, Villanova improves to 18-13 on the season, while Marquette falls to 20-10 on the year.

The Wildcats will now advance to Sunday's semifinal round where they will take on the Connecticut Huskies at 2:30 p.m. The game can be seen live on Fox.

The first quarter went back and forth with neither team able to up more than a three-point lead. Marquette led 16-14 late in the opening quarter, when Wildcat senior Kaitlyn Orihel scored on a lay-up off a nice pass from Maddie Webber. Orihel was fouled on the play and the conventional three-point play gave Villanova a 17-16 lead after one.

Villanova was 6-of-14 from the field in the game's first 10 minutes, while Marquette was 6-of-15. The Wildcats were plus nine from three going 3-of-6 from long distance. Marquette was 0-for-4.

Marquette led 27-24 with 2:43 left in the half, when Wildcat freshman point guard Jasmine Bascoe made her presence known. The freshman star scored eight straight points for Villanova to send the Wildcats to halftime with a 32-29 lead.

As was the case in the first quarter, neither team was able to lead by more than three points in the second stanza. Three-point shooting was the difference in the first half with Villanova connecting on 5-of-11 and Marquette missing all eight of its triple attempts.
Villanova scored six of the first eight points of the third quarter to open-up a 38-31 advantage. With the momentum on the Wildcats side, Marquette responded with seven straight points to tie the game at 38-38.

After Villanova's Ryanne Allen split a pair at the line to put Villanova up 45-42, Marquette made it a 45-44 game on a short jumper by Kennedi Perkins. Webber then made one-of-two from the foul line to give Villanova a 46-44 advantage with 2:56 to play in the third quarter. Following a scoreless stretch that lasted 2:20, Villanova's Denae Carter closed out the third period scoring when she made a lay-up to send the teams to the fourth quarter with Villanova leading 48-44.

The Wildcats led 55-51 with 5:56 remaining, when Villanova used a 5-1 spurt to grab a 60-52 advantage. The five points included a 10-foot jump shot by Lara Edmanson and a three-ball from the right wing from Maddie Burke.

After the Golden Eagles cut the lead to 60-55 with 3:59 on the clock, Bascoe scored five straight points on a three-point field goal and a jumper in the paint and the Wildcats led 65-55. Marquette stayed in the game and sliced the lead to 65-60 with a triple by Skylar Forbes and a lay-up by Perkins off a Wildcat turnover.

On Villanova's next possession, the Wildcats ran an offensive set to perfection that resulted in a three-ball from the left wing from Burke that put her team up 68-60 with 53 seconds remaining. Following a Forbes bucket that cut the Wildcat lead to 70-66 at the 32 second mark, Villanova put the game away by going three-of-four from the foul line in the last 20 seconds.

In the win, Bascoe recorded her first career double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Burke scored 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including a 5-of-9 effort from three-point range. Webber was the third Wildcat in double figures with 10 points. Webber also added a game-high five assists.

Marquette was paced by Forbes with 23 points and Halle Vice who had 17 points.

For the game, Villanova was 26-of-56 from the field (46.4%), 9-of-23 from three-point range (39.1%) and 12-of-20 from the foul line (60.0%), while Marquette shot 38.6 percent from the floor (22-of-57), 23.1 percent from long distance (3-of-13) and 73.1 percent from the charity stripe (19-of-26). Marquette owned a 42-29 advantage on the backboards.