Villanova is in the danger zone.

All the positivity accumulated at the Battle 4 Atlantis has officially evaporated, as the ‘Cats lost their third straight game Tuesday night, falling to Kansas State 72-71 in overtime.

“Just a battle tonight,” Kyle Neptune said. “I was really proud of the way our guys competed until the very end. Hats off to Kansas State, they did a great job. They outlasted us.”

Things started off well enough for the ‘Cats, who were hot from three and carried a six-point lead with 12:38 to go in the half. To say the wheels fell off after that would be an understatement.

A quick 7-0 push from Kansas State erased the ‘Nova advantage, and it would get much, much worse from there.

A Hakim Hart layup with 8:09 left in the half stopped the bleeding and put the ‘Cats back on top by one. It would be the last field goal Villanova would make in the period. Yes, ‘Nova went over eight minutes without making a field goal. Kansas State’s 7-0 push eventually became a 17-2 run as ‘Nova watched six-point lead turn into a nine-point deficit. A few free throws late in the half ended a nearly six-and-a-half-minute drought for ‘Nova, but the damage was done.

Villanova had a chance to steal some momentum and put itself in a decent position, all things considered, late in the first half when it appeared it had secured an offensive rebound. Had that held true, it would have had a chance to hold for the final shot of the period and would have trailed by no more than five despite the catastrophic offense. Instead, the ball squirted free, was picked up by K-State and became an and-one layup that allowed the other Wildcats to push the lead to eight at the break and steal the momentum. Villanova fans were almost certainly suffering flashbacks to the multiple late-half misfortunes that befell ‘Nova a season ago. Ultimately, Kansas State finished the half on a 20-6 run after ‘Nova had taken its biggest lead of the game.

To make matters worse, it was disclosed at halftime that Justin Moore had suffered a knee sprain and would not return.

“Obviously Justin’s our leader, he’s been that for the whole year,” Neptune said. “I was really proud the guys rallied and stepped up in his absence.”

To Villanova’s credit, it battled admirably in the second half without its leader. An 8-0 push pulled ‘Nova within one with 13:46 to play. ‘Nova would tie the game a minute later, only to see Kansas State go on an 8-0 run of its own. A 10-2 spurt from ‘Nova over five minutes got the ‘Cats back within one, but the other Wildcats responded with five straight points to go back up six with 3:11 to go. Villanova again responded, scoring the final six points of the half to force overtime. ‘Nova had the ball with a chance to win in regulation, but TJ Bamba missed a jumper at the buzzer after Neptune decided not to call a timeout.

Villanova scored first in overtime and led the entirety of the period until the final seconds. An Eric Dixon three-pointer gave ‘Nova a four-point lead with just 1:20 to go. But K-State would score the final five points, with Tylor Perry hitting a dagger step-back three with just four seconds left to give K-State the lead and, ultimately, the win. Villanova failed to get a final shot off, as Jordan Longino attempted to go coast-to-coast but ran out of time before getting off a shot.

“We practice for that moment,” Neptune said of the final defensive possession in overtime. “I thought it went exactly how we wanted it to, that dude made a great shot. Stepped back and made that three. It was a helter-skelter play, we were really close to getting a stop. That’s how the game goes sometimes. If we said coming into this game that we would just need a stop with 19 seconds to go, we would have said ‘okay great we’ll take it.’ Unfortunately, we didn’t get the stop.”

They didn’t get the stop, and now for the second season in a row it feels like things are teetering on the edge before conference play even gets underway. If ‘Nova had won even two of its three Big Five games, this loss might not feel so catastrophic. But it didn’t, and now the ‘Cats are in danger of having the season slip away. The ‘Cats will get one more quality non-conference test when UCLA visits on Saturday before beginning Big East play with a trip to Creighton as they look to get back on track before it’s too late.

“All these experiences are what you need,” Neptune said. “This was a tough one for us. We just gotta come back, get better from it and move on. Still a long season.”