Women’s basketball closed out a three-game road stretch with a 74-64 loss against Villanova on Sunday, ending the Jays four game, Big East win streak.
The first two quarters were back and forth between the two sides and the Jays led 34-31 when the the first half buzzer rang.
The majority of the third and fourth quarters were much of the same story but with five minutes left in the fourth quarter the Wildcats hit a pivotal three ball to give them a 59-56 lead and never looked back.
Head coach Jim Flanery acknowledged different factors in his side’s disappointing result.
“[Villanova is] a really good team, they’ve got maybe the best player in the league in Maddy Siegrist,” Flanery said. “We were right there for a little over three quarters and I don’t know if we got worn down a little; it was our fifth game in 10 days and third game in five days and we didn’t finish very well.”
Siegrist, a junior forward, dropped 31 points with 12 rebounds against Creighton, her 11th career 30-point game with the Wildcats.
Sophomore forward Emma Ronsiek, who entered the game with 24 PPG in four games since the Jays narrow loss to No. 11 ranked UConn, led the Bluejays in scoring with 16 points against the Wildcats while picking up four rebounds.
Sophomore guard Morgan Maly came off the bench and scored twelve points for the Jays with four rebounds and two assists.
Despite losing the game, the Bluejays were able to outscore the Wildcats 30-20 in the paint and had 25 points off the bench to Villanova’s 9.
“I thought that we could have been a little bit more intentional with our screening and just like what we were getting into in the second half,” senior guard Tatum Rembao said. “I think that in the first half we could have played a little bit better on the defensive end.”
Although the Jays fell on Sunday, the team has a lot of recent accomplishments to be proud of.
“As a team I thought we stayed together and focused throughout the whole game,” Ronsiek said. “We’ve played five games in the last ten days so that definitely had a little bit of an impact on us physically, but I thought we stayed together as a whole and we focused. We did our best and it just didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to and that’s alright because we can learn a lot from this game at the same time.”
The Bluejays (14-5) are relieved with four days of rest before a return to action on Jan. 28 against the Providence Friars. The game is the Jays first home game back in DJ Sokol Arena since a Jan. 16 win over a talented St. John’s team.
“We love being at home, we love our fans and we love being able to see parents and friends in the stands and really, it’s just a heartwarming feeling of defending our home court as well,” Rembao said.