On Sunday, March 3, Villanova celebrated Senior Night and the end to regular season play in dramatic fashion, with junior guard Lucy Olsen hitting a buzzer beater to secure a 68-66 win over DePaul.
The win leaves the team with an overall record of 18-11 and a conference record of 11-7 record. Villanova will go into the Big East tournament as the fourth seed.
The leading scorer and rebounder for the ‘Cats was Olsen. She finished the night with a double-double of 31 points and 10 rebounds. Following her, junior guard Zanai Jones contributed to the game with 16 points of her own in her second game back from injury. Coming off a season-high 15-point game against UConn, junior guard Kaitlyn Orihel provided eight points and nine rebounds on the night.
Compared to their last meeting with the Blue Demons, a 95-64 victory for the ‘Cats, it’s no secret that this game was not one of their best. In fact, throughout the entire game the ‘Cats only held the lead for eleven seconds.
The ‘Cats started cold, producing four turnovers, going 3-of-19 for field goals, and committing four personal fouls.
On defense, the ‘Cats were hurting for a big presence to stop the forwards on the Blue Demons with junior forward Christina Dalce having to take a seat early due to two fouls.
On offense, leading scorer Olsen was nowhere to be found in the first quarter and the only scorer for the ‘Cats was Jones as they finished the quarter down, 23-7.
The narrative switched going into the second quarter as Olsen found her way to the basket after struggling against the Blue Demons’ defense. After not scoring a single point in the first quarter, Olsen helped her team cut the deficit with 17 points. They went on a 13-0 run and went into the locker room down, 32-36.
Coming into the second half, Villanova tried closing the single digit gap but were unsuccessful due to DePaul’s Jorie Allen on the offensive put backs and Kate Clarke from behind the three-point line.
Going into the fourth quarter, things were looking bleaker for the ‘Cats as the Blue Demons lead eventually grew to 14, causing head coach Denise Dillion to call a timeout with eight and half minutes left.
But in similar fashion of the second quarter, this break was all Villanova needed to get back in their rhythm as Olsen began the momentum for her team with a steal, fast break, and assist to Jones to get things rolling.
From here, a mix of key defensive stops and buckets from a variety of ‘Cats produced a 12-2 run in the waning minutes, cutting the Blue Demon lead down to three with two minutes left.
In fitting fashion, on her senior night, forward Bella Runyan forced the Blue Demon turnover and made the step through shot to give the ‘Cats their first lead of the game with 45 seconds left.
But the Blue Demons were able to respond with a basket and defensive stop of their own thanks to Anaya Peoples, reclaiming the lead and forcing the ‘Cats to foul with seven seconds left.
After Peoples went 1-2 on free throws, and with zero timeouts left, Olsen took the ball the length of the court as the clock ran down, driving and forcing Peoples’ fifth and last offensive foul.
With 1.8 seconds left, Olsen hit both of her free throws, tying the game, and giving the ball back to DePaul. However, instead of holding the ball, when DePaul inbounded, Blue Demon Michelle Sidor forgot to dribble and traveled as she tried heaving a shot from way beyond half court, giving Villanova the ball back on their end with 1.1 seconds.
From here, Runyan inbounded the ball to Olsen who quickly released her signature pullup shot from the elbow with 0.4 seconds on the clock, giving her senior teammates and the Wildcats the win.
With this closeout of the regular season, Villanova will head to the Big East tournament on Saturday, March 9, where they will face number five seed Marquette. Tipoff is set for 2:30 p.m. It will be broadcast on Fox Sports 2.
