Villanova Women Ride Three-Point Barrage to Upset of No. 11 Duke in Home Opener in Jake Nevin

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By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA, Pa. — In the bandbox that is Jake Nevin Field House, the place from yesteryear in Villanova men’s and women’s basketball history, the Wildcats women brought music to the eyes and ears of their faithful Sunday afternoon with a 64-55 upset of No. 11 Duke in their home opener.

A lively crowd of 1,421 saw (coach Harry) Perretta vintage basketball at its best with ‘Nova shooting 10-for-20 three pointers in the second half and 15-for-40 overall to give the unbeaten Wildcats (3-0) their best upset of a ranked team since felling then No. 4 Notre Dame 59-54 on January 9, 2005, in the old Big East wars.

Perretta’s team is back in its original home where 3,000 used to fill the place regularly in the mid-1980s during the Shelly Pennfather era, the move necessitated because the Pavilion next door is undergoing renovation.

He laughed when suggested to him after Sunday’s big win that by this season is over he might not want to return to the larger facility.

Perretta is now in his 40th season coaching the Villanova women with Sunday being his 726th victory.

After the Blue Devils (2-1) led by 11 points late in the second quarter and 28-22 at the half, Duke’s Leaonna Odom scored inside on a layup and then the Wildcats exploded on a 14-0 run fueled by an array of treys from juniors Jannah Tucker, Adrianna Hahn, sophomore Kelly Jekot and senior Alex Louin.

Jekot’s performance was particularly noteworthy with career highs of seven three-balls off nine attempts and 23 points while likewise for Louin, who was scoreless after four field goal attempts in the first half and finished with 17 points, four assists, four steals and nine rebounds. She also connected  with three of completions from beyond the arc.

“Our guards got me the ball where I needed it,” Jekot said. “That was a big help.”

Louin had a four-point play to put Villanova ahead to stay as part of what became a 23-4 run in the quarter.

“That was a huge play for me as I hadn’t been shooting well,” Louin said. “The four-point play gave me the confidence to keep shooting the three.”

Tucker, whose career began at Tennessee before transferring here two years ago, finished with 10 points.

“Going in, we knew we had to make threes,” Perretta said. “We got 40 of them up there, and in the second half we made fifty percent.  That’s what we needed to do. We had to generate three’s and we shot them very well in the second half.

“I thought we got decent ball movement in the first half,” Perretta explained.  “Not as good as the second half, but we got enough shots to stay in the game.  We were lucky to be in the game at halftime.  When you start making shots, the defense makes mistakes, you pass the ball better, and you feel more confident.”

On the Blue Devils’ side all-America candidate Lexi Brown scored 16 points, but was in foul trouble and eventually disqualified and dealt just one assist. Odom had 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Rebecca Greenwell had nine points and six rebounds.

Villanova committed just eight turnovers while forcing Duke into 15 miscues and also dished out 15 assists while limiting the opposition to eight.

With Jekot and her teammates firing away the ‘Nova lead grew to an eventual differential of 15 points with 6 minutes, 42 seconds left in the game and then down the stretch several times Perretta’s bunch  were able to grab an offensive rebound multiple times to chew up precious time needed by the Blue Devils to rally.

“We attack the boards pretty well,” Perretta said.

As for his counterpart, “It’s a huge lesson for our team in terms of shot selection, possession, handling things,” said Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie. She said her team should be able to play a “blue collar” game in which the tempo may be less to the Blue Devils’ liking.

“Three-point shooting, that should not be a factor in the game,” McCallie said.  “They had seven  more assists and 7 less turnovers, that’s where the game was won.”

While the ‘Nova people have said that next year might be the big one in terms of all the talent Perretta has been collecting in recent seasons it would not be surprising to see the Wildcats become a greater threat 12 months ahead of schedule.

The Big East coaches picked them third in their preseason poll behind defending conference tournament champion Marquette and DePaul but teams behind them who have gained with some transfers such as Seton Hall could also be in the mix.

Perretta noted that once teams like UConn and some others at the top of the rankings are excepted there is much balance in the landscape saying his team easily could have a shot to pull an upset as it did Sunday but also could lose to a team that might be near the bottom of the 300-plus NCAA Division I membership.

The Wildcats next play in Vermont’s tournament Friday opening against James Madison, which fell to Saint Joseph’s at home Sunday afternoon. The Hawks’ win are in the overall roundup.

Up in Burlington this weekend, the host Catamounts will meet American with the winners and losers meeting Saturday. The following Wednesday, Villanova will visit Princeton, where they won in Jadwin Gym last season in the WNIT and then they will finally return to Jake Nevin in what should be a great one hosting Saint Joseph’s in a Big Five clash on Dec. 3.