By Mel Greenberg
VILLANOVA - The clock was winding down. A chunk of Big East pride was hanging on the ledge. And one of the officials on the floor was Bonita Spence, a member of the gang-of-three innvolved in the Rutgers-Tennessee clockgate scandal in Knoxville.
Not to worry.
Laua Kurz kept Villanova's season alive for one more night when she scored inside off a missed shot by teammate Stacie Witman with 0.6 seconds remaining to give the Wildcats a 53-52 victory over American Wednesday night in a Women's National Invitation Tournament first-round game at the Pavilion.
The win advanced the Wildcats against Wisconsin (16-13), which had a bye, in Madison, Saturday night.
American (18-14) was the regular-season champion of the Patriot League, while Villanova stumbled into the Big East tournament after a marathon series of tiebreakers and had lost five straight before Wednesday night.
The Wildcats (16-15) were the walking wounded going into the contest. Lisa Karcic was off the active roster after the Big East first-round loss to Pitt because of a season-ending knee injury. Siobhan O'Connor has a stress facture on her foot and is only available on game day. Witman suffered a fracutred pinkie finger on her shooting hand recently during practice. And Kurz sprained an ankle in the opening minutes.
“I was concerned because we were so banged up going into the game,” Villanova coach Harry Perretta said. “I knew for us to win, (the score) had to be in the 40s or 50s.”
American, which was trying to become the first Patriot team to win a WNIT game in for the first time in three tries, extended the Wildcats most of the night.
When Liz Hayes scored with eight seconds left after Kurz had missed a half-baked shot at the other end, it appeared American would become the second Patriot team to win in the postseason. (Holy Cross has a win in the NCAA).
But Nova, in uncharacteristic fashion for Perretta's normal patient attack on offense, tore down the floor and Witman put up an air ball that landed in Kurz's hands. She quickly heaved the ball toward the basket and it dropped in.
The winning score gave Kurz, a transfer from Duke, a total of 13 points, all secured in the second half. Witman grabbed 12 rebounds.
“I tried to do whatever I could because I knew there was little time remaning,” Kurz said of her game-winner. “I didn’t even think it was going in. I awkwardly shot it with my left hand. I guess it was my lucky day. I breathed a sigh of relief because you don’t want your season to end like that.”
American's Liz Hayes had a game-high 14 points.
Additionally, O'Connor's three-pointer early in the second half gave Villanova the NCAA record for treys made in a season with 306. The previous mark of 305 was held by Missouri State in 2005.
-- Mel
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