BATON ROUGE, La. \u2014 And just like that, the Big 5 was out of March Madness.<\/p>\n
Less than 24 hours after Penn<\/a> and the Villanova men\u2019s team were bounced from their NCAA Tournament<\/a>, the 10th-seeded Villanova<\/a> women never got an offensive rhythm going and bowed out of the first round as well with a 57-52 loss to No. 7 seed Texas Tech. <\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say there weren\u2019t some late heroics, though. Star sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe swished a three-pointer with 14 seconds to go to cut the Wildcats\u2019 deficit in half and took a charge on the other end of the court, leaving 13.8 seconds to tie the game. But Denae Carter\u2019s three-point attempt fell short, and Brynn McCurry, who finished with 13 points and nine rebounds and provided a hard-nosed presence on both ends of the floor all night, picked up her fifth foul in the battle for the ball. Bailey Maupin, Texas Tech\u2019s star guard, then put the game on ice from the free-throw line. She led the Red Raiders (26-7) with 17 points. Bascoe led all scorers with 21 points, her 15th game this season with at least 20. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely physical game,\u201d Bascoe said. \u201cVery gritty. We like that, though. We wanted to play with that, and so it was fun. It was lots of fun. … Yeah, they were a great defensive team. Very aggressive. So are we. I think that\u2019s why it was such a close, competitive game. We were both giving it back to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: After a tough start to the season, Villanova knew where to turn: the players who\u2019ve been in March Madness before<\/a><\/p>\n Nobody was getting out of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center unscathed, or at least without a foul in Friday\u2019s physical battle, as the Wildcats committed 22 fouls to the Red Raiders\u2019 15. That physicality was a boost on the boards, though, as Villanova<\/a> (25-8) held a 28-26 rebounding edge.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately fouls came into play,\u201d Wildcats coach Denise Dillon said. \u201cKennedy Henry, she\u2019s a freshman. … She gets the assignment of the top player on the other team, game in and game out. When you\u2019re putting a freshman in that position, you\u2019re asking a lot. I will say, that first half [she] did a really good job, but then she\u2019s on the bench; picked up fouls; tried to tag team. Dani Ceseretti did a really nice job. She\u2019s a veteran.\u201d<\/p>\n In a game like this, a seven-point lead can feel like a massive gulf. Texas Tech\u2019s Denae Fritz (13 points) drilled a three-pointer from the left corner to give her team a 50-43 advantage with 4 minutes, 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Bascoe and McCurry quickly responded with their team\u2019s first field goals of the period to cut the deficit back to three, but the damage was done. The Wildcats shot 22.2% in the fourth quarter and 37% overall. Texas Tech, meanwhile, shot 43.9% from the floor.<\/p>\n That continued a first-half trend perfect for fans of defense. The biggest lead held by either team was an early four-point advantage held by the Wildcats, who led 9-5 for about 30 seconds as they had a tough time putting together a run against the quick, disruptive Red Raiders and their full-court press. <\/p>\n But Kelsey Joens, the Iowa State transfer, was there \u2014 especially in the first quarter. She hit her first four three-pointer attempts en route to 14 points and added a block on the first possession of the game. Bascoe had Villanova\u2019s other two points in the opening period and began to find her groove in the second quarter. But she picked up two fouls in the first half\u2019s final 14 seconds, including an offensive foul in the half\u2019s final second. She still was on the floor for every second, battling when the shots weren\u2019t falling.<\/p>\n