Villanova’s woes in close games continued Saturday as the Wildcats found yet another way to lose a tight game. This time it was a disastrous combination of failing to make a play when you need it, some questionable officiating and some plain bad luck. Regardless, it feels like the specifics of these things are becoming less important as the team continues to find ways to come up short in close games and to give away games that should have been won. The result of this most recent example was an excruciating 62-60 loss to Creighton.

“Tough one. A lot of credit goes to Creighton,” Kyle Neptune said. “I was really proud of our guys, especially defensively, thought we forced them into to some tough spots. Thought we played hard the entire game. Unfortunately we ended up on the other side of where we wanted to end up, but really proud of our guys effort.”

It was a pretty ugly start to the game, but Villanova did a great job hanging in there despite never really getting the offense going. The Wildcats started the game 1-8, and with 7:35 to play in the half Creighton was shooting 50 percent to Villanova’s 25%. Yet, despite that shooting disparity, ‘Nova found itself down just seven. It would soon make a move and secure its reward for its resilience.

Villanova erupted for a 12-2 run, fueled by Creighton turnovers, to take its first lead of the game at the 3:15 mark of the first half. All things considered, Villanova had to feel pretty good heading into the break tied at 29 after trailing by as many as eight.

So, how was ‘Nova able to head to the break even despite shooting 42 percent on two-point attempts, 25 percent from three and losing the rebounding battle 24-15? It helped that Creighton was just 1-14 from three, but the biggest factor was the turnovers. Villanova forced nine Creighton giveaways, turning them into 13 points. Meanwhile, the Wildcats committed just two turnovers, neither of which led to a Creighton basket.

One other interesting note from the first half was Jordann Dumont getting the earliest minutes he has seen so far at ‘Nova, checking in with 13:56 to play in the half. He ended up playing 10 first-half minutes, scoring three points and grabbing four rebounds while posting a team-high +9. For reference, the only other Wildcats with a positive +/- were Jhamir Brickus, Eric Dixon and Tyler Perkins, and they were each just a +1.

The second half was a tight affair, with the teams playing within four points of each other before a 7-0 run by ‘Nova gave the ‘Cats their largest lead of the game at five with 6:52 to play. Creighton, however, answered immediately with a 7-0 run of its own to retake a two-point lead with 4:06 remaining.

A Wooga Poplar layup with 1:58 to go pulled ‘Nova within one and set the stage for yet another unfathomable final minute for the Wildcats.

A Creighton layup with 49 seconds left pushed the Bluejays’ lead back to three. The basket was the result of an offensive rebound, after Perkins was unable to secure a rebound that was firmly in his hands. It was the first sign that things were going to go poorly for ‘Nova.

“It was a big play, but in a game like that every play throughout the course of the 40 minutes could have changed it,” Dixon said of the missed opportunity.

Poplar answered with a dunk to get ‘Nova back within one with 43 seconds on the clock, and on the ensuing possession Poplar came up with a steal and dunk go give Villanova the lead with 14 seconds to go. Steve Ashworth badly missed a three with eight seconds remaining, with a Creighton player leaping after the miss as is careened out of bounds. The officials awarded the Bluejays a timeout, saying that the Creighton player secured possession of the ball in the air and called time before coming down out of bounds. It was a questionable decision to say the least. On the inbounds play, Villanova somehow managed to completely lose Ashworth, arguably Creighton’s best shooter, yet Ashworth badly misfired on his attempt, with the ball making contact with the top of the backboard closest to the corner from which Ashworth shot the ball. Somehow, inexplicably, the ball bounced off the backboard and fell through the net, putting Creighton up 62-60 with five seconds left. Yes, you read that right: Ashworth somehow banked in a corner three.

“They just ran a good play,” Neptune said of the dagger three. “There was a lot of guys in there, guy clipped one of our guys and he made a tough shot. Enoch tried to contest it late, I think it went off the side of the backboard.”

“The last play, we got this little coin that a dear friend gave me when my mom passed away a year and a half ago, it says ‘where you go, I go’ and its got her name on it,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “I was rubbing this to death on that last play and somehow she steered that thing off the backboard in the corner into the net. The play was executed to perfection, we were either gonna get a lob or we cleared out that corner for Steven and we got a lucky bounce. Sometimes when you do this long enough, you see everything, and this is 36 years for me and it’s the first time I’ve seen a banked-in three-point shot from the corner to win a game.”

‘Nova advanced the ball past halfcourt and called timeout with three seconds to go. Dixon proceeded to dribble the ball off himself and out of bounds with 0.7 seconds left, essentially ending the game.

Villanova will look to bounce back on Wednesday when it travels to DePaul.