All good things come to an end, and that was the case for Villanova Tuesday night at the Palestra as the Wildcats’ 25-game Big 5 winning streak came to a frustrating end in a 78-75 loss to Penn.

It’s not so much that Villanova lost to Penn that is frustrating, the Quakers have a very good team this year and we expected a tough game, but the way in which the loss went down.

The ‘Cats looked incredibly unprepared to play this game, turning the ball over two times on the first three possessions and four times in the first four minutes. ‘Nova scored just two points in the first seven and a half minutes and promptly dug themselves a 14-2 deficit.

Villanova showed some nice resolve, going on a 15-0 run over four minutes to take the lead, but even during the run it felt like the energy and intensity were lacking, a theme that remained for much of the game.

A 7-0 answer from Penn restored the Quaker lead and they took a four-point advantage into the break.

They pushed the lead to 10 five minutes into the half and were able to keep the ‘Cats at arms-length the rest of the game. ‘Nova closed to within four, but Penn was able to keep the lead between five and nine for much of the second half.

Over the final four minutes, the ‘Cats finally started playing with some intensity, getting within three on several occasions and looking like they could possibly pull victory from the jaws of defeat. A Phil Booth 3 again narrowed the deficit to three with under five seconds remaining. Penn threw the ensuing inbounds pass away, with Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree making an incredibly smart play to not touch the ball, letting it go out of bounds, giving the ‘Cats one final chance to tie the game. But Booth’s 3 came up short, and ‘Nova left the Palestra with a bitter taste in its mouth.

Again, losing a game to a decent team is fine, but the way the ‘Cats played make this one tough to swallow. They were lifeless for long stretches. They were careless with the ball. The offense was stagnant. The crisp passing and decisiveness we saw the past two games disappeared. The defense was a mess. Penn picked the ‘Cats apart with screens and motion and the communication was terrible. They were horrible from the free throw line, shooting 18-27, and they sent the Quakers to the line 37 times. They got absolutely crushed on the boards and surrendered 13 offensive rebounds. The ‘Cats were outworked, outhustled, and outplayed. It was about as far from “Villanova basketball” as you could get.

Adding to the frustration is the fact that all the progress Villanova has made over the past two weeks seemed to disappear at once. We knew there would be ups and downs, but after seeing improvement it was jarring to watch all the problems reappear at once.

There’s still a lot of basketball to be played, and there’s still reason to believe that Villanova will continue to improve. But Tuesday night was discouraging.

If you’re looking for positives, there’s the fact that ‘Nova shot 50 percent, the fact that they never quit, and the fact that despite the poor play they still were almost able to pull out a win. But yeah, it’s hard to feel good about what we saw Tuesday night.

Things don’t get any easier for the ‘Cats as they travel to Kansas on Saturday to take on the No. 1 Jayhawks.