Reruns. Groundhog Day. We’ve seen this movie before. We’re running out of ways to express the recurring themes of Villanova’s 2022-23 season, themes which were again on full display in a 66-61 loss to Creighton on Saturday night.

‘Nova got off to a decent start, hitting three of its first four shots and leading 7-5 at the under-16 timeout and 12-10 at the under-12 timeout. The difference in the period was an 8-0 Creighton run over two minutes that turned a 14-14 tie into a 22-14 Creighton lead. That run coincided with a nearly three-minute drought for ‘Nova. The ‘Cats also suffered through a four-minute drought earlier in the period.

Overall, it wasn’t that bad of a half for Villanova. The Wildcats held Creighton to 41% shooting overall and 38% from three. That 38% was a tick above Creighton’s season average, but certainly isn’t an unmanageable number. Unfortunately, ‘Nova really struggled to put the ball in the basket, hitting just 39% overall and 23% from three.

The second half was an exercise in frustration and a summary of the entire season.

The ‘Cats pulled within three at the 17:39 mark and again at 16:36. A minute later, the frustration would start.

Trailing 41-36, Mark Armstrong drew a foul while making a layup. When the game resumed following a media timeout, Villanova was inbounding the ball. During the break, the officials somehow decided to switch the call to a foul on the floor, taking away Armstrong’s bucket and his free throw attempt. The Wildcats promptly turned the ball over, leading to five straight points from Creighton. Instead of having a chance to get within 41-39, ‘Nova found itself down 46-36.

To Villanova’s credit, it responded with an 8-0 run to get back within two and extended the push to 15-3 to retake the lead 50-49 at the 9:43 mark. It was Villanova’s first lead since 12-10.

The teams would play within a possession of each other for the next seven minutes before a wave a frustration would wash over the Wildcats.

With 1:32 remaining and the game tied, the ‘Cats got a stop, and the rebound came down to Caleb Daniels. But Daniels had the ball ripped away by Arthur Kaluma, leading to a Ryan Nembhard layup to put Creighton up two with 1:17 to play. On the ensuing possession, an Eric Dixon jumper hit every inch of the rim before falling off. In a season in which Villanova can’t seem to catch a break, the sequence epitomized the 2022-23 Villanova experience.

Kaluma missed the front end of a one-and-one and Dixon nailed a three to put the ‘Cats up one with 34 seconds left. Then, more frustration.

Cam Whitmore was called for a foul with26 seconds left, sending Trey Alexander to the line. Alexander hit both to put Creighton in front 62-61. Was it a foul on Whitmore? Yes. But it was the kind of contact you get on almost every possession of every game, it occurred 15-18 feet from the basket and had very little impact on the play. Maybe I’m off base here, maybe I’m being a homer, but I’d like to see the players decide the game and that felt like a spot that the whistle could have been swallowed.

On the ensuing possession, Daniels turned the ball over on a play where it looked like there was as much contact as there was on the previous possession where Whitmore was called for a foul. Again, if you’re going to call the game soft/tight/by the letter of the law, it would be nice to do so consistently and call it the same at both ends. But there would be no whistle and ‘Nova would be forced to foul.

Alexander hit two more free throws, Dixon missed a potential game-tying three with three seconds left, and that was it. Yet another close loss for the ‘Cats.

I hate to be the “blame it on the refs guy,” and the officiating is not the reason Villanova lost this game. But in addition to those late calls/no-calls, there was also an incident where it looked like Ryan Kalkbrenner likely flopped, which could have been his fifth foul, but instead Whitmore was called for a charge. In general, it just felt like every close call went against the ‘Cats Saturday night, making a tough task of dealing with a good team on the road all the more difficult.

More broadly, the officiating, along with the stolen rebound and Dixon’s in-and-out shot, sum up the frustration of the season for Villanova. It just seems like Villanova can’t catch a break. Whether it’s loose balls/50-50 balls not going Villanova’s way, hard work and/or good play being offset by a bad bounce or an excellent defensive possession being lost by a desperation shot at the end of the shot clock, Villanova has gotten zero help in the luck department this season. While you can’t rely on luck, you’d generally expect luck-type issues to be pretty evenly balanced over the course of the season and Villanova is well behind the mean in that category this season.

Again, you can’t rely on luck and the officials, while they may not have helped, where not the reason Villanova lost and was once again unable to close out a close game.

Villanova played well defensively, a large reason why it was in the game late. The ‘Cats did struggle with Alexander, who had 27 points, but limited Creighton to 38% overall and 29% from three. They limited the Bluejays to just 44.8% on two-point attempts. After having issues on the glass in the first half, ‘Nova actually outrebounded the Bluejays 18-16 in the second half.

Unfortunately, putting the ball in the basket was again a struggle. ‘Nova shot just 39% overall and 28% from three. Much like in the loss to Marquette on Wednesday, the offense was particularly out of sorts down the stretch as the ‘Cats scored just 10 points over the game’s final 9:43 and five points over the final 5:54. Even playing strong defense, it’s hard to win games with that kind of offensive output, especially in crunch time.

Anyway, for the umpteenth time this season, Villanova once again was unable to close out a close game. The familiar result, combined with the late-game execution and poor luck, epitomized Villanova’s season.

Villanova will look to get back in the win column on Wednesday when it hosts DePaul.