MORGANTOWN, WVa. – In women's basketball action on Monday evening, the Villanova Wildcats traveled to Morgantown, West Virginia, where they tallied an 81-59 upset win over the No. 25 West Virginia Mountaineers. With the victory, Villanova improve to 6-2 on the year, while the Mountaineers fall to 6-2 overall.
Villanova started fast, making seven of its first 13 shots to take a 15-6 lead. Villanova would use the early momentum to connect on 12 of 20 from the field in the opening quarter to lead 28-17 after one period.
Sophomore guard
Jasmine Bascoe was the story for Villanova in the opening quarter. Bascoe scored 15 first quarter points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field.
A three-point field goal by
Ryanne Allen gave Villanova its largest lead of the half at 36-19 early in the second quarter. Following a bucket by
Brynn McCurry that put the Wildcats up 40-26, the Mountaineers scored five straight points to slice the lead to 40-31.
After a scoreless stretch where neither team scored for 2:35, the Wildcats scored eight of the final 12 points of the half to take a 48-35 lead into intermission. Bascoe scored five of the eight points on a three-pointer and driving lay-up, while freshman
Brooke Bender drained a triple.
Bascoe was dominant in the first half scoring 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting. McCurry added 15 first half points.
Villanova led 57-42 midway through the third quarter, when the Mountaineers scored four straight points to slice the Wildcat lead to 57-46. The Wildcats then took control of the game with a decisive 9-1 run to take a commanding 66-47 lead with just under two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Bender led the spurt with five points with a three-ball and a short jumper.
The run would propel the Wildcats to a 68-51 advantage after three quarters of play.
Villanova put the game away by scoring seven of the first nine points of the fourth quarter to open-up its largest lead of the game at 77-53.
Bascoe led all the scorers in the game with 24 points to go with six assists. McCurry scored a career-high 21 points and had a career-best nine rebounds. Bender and
Kennedy Henry had 11 points each.
West Virginia was paced by Gia Cooke with 20 points.
In the win, Villanova was 33-of-63 from the field (52.4%), 8-of-20 from three-point range (40.0%) and 7-of-9 from the foul line (77.8%), while the Mountaineers shot 32.8 percent form the floor (19-of-58), 30.0 percent from long distance (3-of-10) and 64.3 percent from the charity stripe (18-of-28). The Wildcat victory snapped a 21-game home winning streak for WVU that stretched back to the end of the 2023-24 season.
Villanova will begin BIG EAST play on Thursday night with a road game at Georgetown. Game time is set for 7
