Strike three, Villanova’s out.

A disastrous weekend for Villanova in Portland ended with a 74-67 loss to Oregon and an 0-3 record at the PK Invitational, extending the Wildcats losing streak to four and dropping the ‘Cats to 2-5 on the season.

Villanova once again stumbled offensively out of the gate, hitting just two of its first seven attempts over the first five minutes of the game and three of its first 10. Oregon used the poor shooting to go on an 8-0 run to take a 15-6 lead seven minutes into the game.

The Oregon lead got as large as 10 with 9:06 to play, but the ‘Cats were able to battle back and get within two with 2:16 left in the half. An Oregon bucket with 29 seconds remaining sent the Ducks into the break with a 35-31 lead.

Outside of Villanova’s poor shooting, the first half was played fairly evenly and there were some encouraging signs. Villanova held its own on the glass (19-19) and had a 10-8 edge in second chance points. The Wildcats committed only three turnovers, but Oregon was able to turn those miscues into eight points. Villanova turned four Oregon turnovers into seven points.

In what’s becoming a concerning trend, Oregon scored the first five points of the second half, all off Villanova turnovers, to push the lead to nine. ‘Nova pulled within three, but a 15-8 push from Oregon extended the lead back to double digits with 8:50 remaining.

To the Wildcats’ credit, they continued to fight and outscored Oregon 19-6 over the next six minutes to take a three-point lead with 2:27 to go, culminating with a Brendan Hausen three that broke a tie and gave ‘Nova its first lead since 16:18 in the first half. The ‘Cats would not score again, however, and Oregon would end the game on a 10-0 run to take the seven-point win.

“We just couldn’t execute,” Kyle Neptune said of the game’s final two minutes. “We couldn’t get a rebound, we couldn’t make a shot.”

The difference-maker in the second half was rebounding. Villanova gave up 10 offensive rebounds leading to 10 Oregon points while netting just two points off two offensive rebounds of its own.

Villanova didn’t do anything egregiously wrong on Sunday afternoon but once again just generally weren’t good enough. The Wildcats were again hampered by poor shooting, and the offense disappeared for stretches as a result. The three-point defense once again left something to be desired, as Oregon got plenty of clean looks from deep and hit 37.9% despite having hit just over 28% from deep on the season. The inability to play consistently on either end of the floor led to the ‘Cats once again facing a double-digit deficit, and they just don’t have the firepower to overcome long stretches of poor play or constant double figure deficits.

Better starts and some consistency would go a long way towards helping Villanova right the ship. The question is do they have the ability to make those things a reality?

One bright spot was Hausen, who scored a career-high 15 points on 5-8 three-point shooting.

Villanova finds itself in uncharted territory and in serious danger of have the season get away. The one thing the team has consistently shown is heart and resiliency, but it’s clear that those attributes aren’t enough right now. The team needs to figure things out, and quickly.