Slow Start Sinks Villanova Women’s Basketball Against Fairfield

Villanova Women’s Basketball fell 75-63 to the Fairfield Stags on Wednesday, Nov. 5, unable to overcome a slow start at home. The loss drops the Wildcats to 1-1 on the season, albeit against a strong program that qualified for the NCAA Tournament in three of the past four years.

Fairfield began the game on a 13-1 run, prompting Villanova head coach Denise Dillon to use her first timeout less than four minutes in. The Wildcats missed their first seven shots and committed three turnovers before a Brynn McCurry layup broke their cold spell with 3:49 to play in the period.

Villanova surged back during the middle frames, with sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe leading the charge. Bascoe dropped 30 points on 12-of-25 shooting, with most of her misses resulting from a 3-of-10 clip from beyond the arc. While the Wildcats put on a better shooting performance than they did in their season opener against Lafayette, long range accuracy continued to haunt them: they converted on just five of 20 three-point attempts as a team.

Villanova took a 43-39 lead midway through the third quarter amidst a 13-2 run, with eight of those points coming from Bascoe. Fairfield reeled off a 6-0 run to retake the lead, but Bascoe put the Wildcats back in front with a triple.

Dani Ceseretti made it 51-48 with 1:10 left in the third, but Villanova didn’t make a shot from the field for the next six minutes of game time, as Fairfield took control with a 10-0 run. The Wildcats twice managed to pull within four points, but couldn’t come any closer as Fairfield won the final quarter 24-12.

Up next, Villanova Women’s Basketball will travel to Toronto for a neutral site matchup against VCU set for 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 9.