Villanova University torched the University of Maine defense early and often on Friday night, building a 19-point halftime advantage on the way to a 71-60 basketball victory in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament at The Pavilion in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
The Wildcats (20-13), who were knocked out in the semifinals of the Big East Conference tournament, advance to face Old Dominion in a WNIT second-round contest on Sunday.
Coach Richard Barron’s Black Bears (23-9) lost for the third time in their last four contests, including the semifinal loss to Hartford in the America East Conference semifinals. The 23 victories were the most for a UMaine team since 2004-2005.
UMaine also slipped to 1-5 all time in WNIT play and has yet to win a first-round game in the tournament. The one win occurred in a consolation-round game.
Villanova lived up to its billing as an efficient offensive ballclub that can shoot the 3-pointer. The Wildcats shot a sizzling 52 percent from the arc, hitting 14 of 27 attempts to reach double figures in 3-pointers for the 14th time this season.
The Black Bears did not have an answer for the Wildcats’ ability to get open 3-point looks.
“I felt like we were mentally ready, but it was something that really wasn’t working or connecting on the defensive end,” said junior forward Mikaela Gustafsson, who tied a career best with 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting accuracy.
“We didn’t get there [to the shooters] enough to be disturbing enough to try to stop the shots” she added.
The hosts wound up shooting 51 percent overall, which helped them thwart a second-half UMaine comeback that came up well short.
Alex Louin headed a quartet of double-figure scorers for Villanova with 17 points and Lauren Burford finished with 15, going 5-for-5 from distance. Caroline Coyer posted 12 points, five rebounds and four assists and Samantha Wilkes added 10 points.
Villanova maintained its reputation as the nation’s leader in fewest turnovers, committing only seven.
Sophomore Sigi Koizar provided an offensive spark for UMaine, scoring all of her game-high 22 points in the second half on 8-for-11 shooting after attempting only one shot in the first 20 minutes.
Junior Liz Wood just missed a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds. She shot 4-for-12 from the field.
UMaine overcame a dismal first-half offensive effort to shoot 44 percent for the contest (23-for-52) and wound up outrebounding Villanova 33-26. However, the Black Bears registered only eight assists.
The Wildcats dissected UMaine’s 2-3 matchup zone and its player-to-player defense early. They hit 7 of 11 3-pointers in the first half alone, including a 4-for-4 performance from Burford.
It was she who provided the spark for the Wildcats early, connecting on four consecutive 3-pointers amidst a 20-4 burst that gave Villanova a 22-6 lead only 7 ½ minutes into the game.
The Wildcats extended their advantage to as many as 23 points late in the first half on a 16-footer by Caroline Coyer and a driving layup by her sister Katherine Coyer that made it a 38-15 ballgame with 3:39 to play in the half.
UMaine, which faced a 40-21 deficit at intermission, played better in the second half. However, the Bears were still unable to consistently stop the Wildcats in spite of improved offensive efficiency.
Koizar took charge attacking off the dribble and scored 15 points during the first 10 ½ minutes of the second half. Her efforts only got the Bears as close as 47-33 on a conventional three-point play with 14:45 left.
UMaine did cut the deficit to 10 (56-46) on a Sophie Weckstrom jumper in transition with 5:26 to play, but that was the closest the Bears would get.
“It’s always hard when you get down by that much, but knowing that this could be our last game — it ended up being our last game — we ended up putting everything out there and doing a much better job,” Gustafsson said.
Sh believes the loss will serve as further motivation as UMaine begins preparations for the 2015-2016 season.
“Of course we’re very disappointed because we were hoping that we were going to be able to play a more competitive game,” she said. “This is the level team we want to be competitive against, so it was a very good experience. We accomplished a lot this year, but we need to work even harder to take the next step and be competitive at a higher level.”