Penn women's basketball falls to Villanova, 70-44

Penn women’s basketball will need to share its throne atop Philadelphia college basketball.

Looking to go 4-0 in the Big 5 on the season, the Red and Blue instead found themselves at the mercy of a Villanova squad firing on all cylinders, losing 70-44.

The Wildcats (11-8) knew they were in for a test from a tough Penn team (8-6), and they came out red hot.

In fact, they pretty much couldn’t miss.

In the game’s first eight minutes alone, Villanova took a commanding 24-8 lead over the Red and Blue. The Wildcats’ impressive scoring output in that stretch came primarily as a result of an obscene 6-of-7 three-point shooting performance.

“They just made shots,” coach Mike McLaughlin said. “We worked really hard to take away some angles, but they move the ball so quickly.”

The Quakers have been strong defensively throughout the season, but quite frankly, Villanova picked them apart. When the Wildcats had the ball, the ball moved crisply and almost always ended in the hands of an open shooter.

“We broke down,” McLaughlin said. “And we paid for it ... They simply outplayed us.”

Penn managed to fight back in the first half, led by the high-energy play of freshman guard Beth Brzozowski, who contributed five points and two steals in short order off the bench.

“I think we treated it like any other Big 5 game,” senior guard Kathleen Roche said. “They came right at us, and we could have come out harder on them.”

However, the Wildcats never looked too concerned. Led by forward Kavunaa Edwards’ four three-pointers, Villanova took a comfortable 12-point lead into the half on just below 60 percent shooting.

McLaughlin went into halftime knowing that his team needed to make adjustments, and the Quakers certainly seemed poised to. The Red and Blue increased on-ball pressure on defense and made a more concerted effort to feed their forwards in the paint.

However, the second half yielded similar results.

Within eight minutes of the second half, the Wildcats had increased their lead to 22 off the strength of sharp passing and scrappy interior defense. From then on, all they had to do was cruise to an easy victory.

It was a dominant performance from the team in blue and white, and the stats showed it.

The Wildcats played unselfish basketball, notching nine more assists than the Red and Blue while shooting an impressive 50 percent from the field.

All of which this made more impressive by the fact that it came at the Palestra, where the Quakers have been almost unbeatable as of late.

There are a couple silver linings for the Quakers to take away from the game, however.

Junior forward Kara Bonenberger put together a strong 13-point performance and looked threatening on the offensive end throughout the evening. Furthermore, despite the ugly loss, Penn still retains a share of its first Big 5 title in school history.

“I know it’s not the time to talk about it 10 minutes after getting your butt kicked,” McLaughlin said. “But to win three Big 5 games for the first time and share this title.

When we look back at it, we’ll celebrate for sure.”

The Quakers will look to bounce back this Saturday on the road against NJIT.

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