On Saturday, Villanova’s first game in the Battle 4 Atlantis proved to be a battle after all. The Wildcats came from behind and defeated Texas A&M 67-55.
Freshman guard Jasmine Bascoe led the Wildcats in scoring, with 15 points and six assists. Junior forward Denae Carter picked up a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Also breaking the double-digit mark for scoring for the ‘Cats was sophomore guard Maddie Webber with 12 points, and graduate guard Maddie Burke with 10.
After arriving a couple days earlier to Paradise Island in the Bahamas, it took some time for the Wildcats to get out of vacation mode. The first quarter belonged to the Aggies, as the Wildcats struggled on the offensive end, not scoring for the first five minutes of the game.
Although Villanova’s defense kept the team in the game, consistent drives by the bigger Texas A&M team were too much to stop. The Aggies had a ten-point lead going into the second quarter.
The Aggies’ advantage did not last long, as the Wildcats found their groove on offense, going on a 7-0 run to start the second quarter. Multiple contributions came from Bascoe and graduate guard Bronagh Power-Cassidy in the paint and behind the arc.
Tasked with the responsibility of managing the taller Aggie forwards, graduate forward Lara Edmanson, Carter and Burke held them to only four points in the paint the entire half as Burke started to produce on the offensive end as well.
By the end of the half, Villanova had closed the deficit, outscoring the Aggies 22-13, going 13-28 (46.4%) for field goals and 2-6 (33.3%) for threes to end the half only down 27-26.
This momentum carried over into the third quarter for the Wildcats, forcing seven turnovers from the Aggies to gain the lead for the first time in the game.
Texas A&M was able to find its way back into the game, though it was never able to separate itself from Villanova. The lead went back-and-forth for the majority of the second half.
In the end, the Wildcats were able to hang on longer and responded to everything the Aggies threw at them.
Villanova eventually broke away in the last minutes of the fourth quarter due to the work of Carter in the paint on both the offensive and defensive end, giving Villanova its largest lead of nine. Even as Texas A&M tried to claw its way back, Carter and Webber’s relentlessness in scoring squashed any hope of that.
The team finished the game going 23-59 (39%) for field goals and 5-17 (29%) from behind the arch, while forcing 20 turnovers for Texas A&M.
For its next game in the tournament, Villanova will face off against the familiar rival of No.16 North Carolina on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in the Imperial Arena.
