Villanova’s 2024-25 season came to an end Saturday in a 104-98 overtime loss to UCF in the semifinals of the College Basketball Crown.

“That was a tough way to go down and finish off our season but gotta give a lot of credit to them,” Mike Nardi said. “They just kept battling. We went up, they fought back, they hit some tough shots. Darius Johnson is a big-time guard, he really hurt us a lot tonight. So you gotta give a lot of credit to him and coach Dawkins, they really brought it.”

It was a relatively closely contested first half, although UCF was able to maintain the lead through much of the period, leading for 19:21 while Villanova led for just 0:14. Still, the lead was generally two possessions are less. The Knights took their largest lead of the game, 48-40, with 1:44 to go, but the Wildcats were able to score the last four points of the half to get the deficit to a manageable four points heading into the break.

As the score would indicate, the pace favored UCF, a team with the 14th fastest tempo in the country, but it was really the three-point line that was the difference in the first half. UCF made eight threes, connecting on 40 percent of its attempts, while ‘Nova was just 3-14 (21 percent).

Jordan Longino and Eric Dixon shot a combined 1-14 in the half, but ‘Nova was kept in the game by the play of Wooga Poplar, who scored 20 in the half.

UCF built the lead to 11 early in the second half, the ‘Cats methodically chipped away, finally getting over the hump and retaking the lead at the 5:23 mark amid a 9-0 run. ‘Nova would extend that run to 15-3 to extend the lead to six with 2:39 to play.

The Wildcats, however, were unable to close out the Knights despite having four-point leads with both 36 seconds and 19 seconds remaining. After pushing the lead back to four at the 19 second mark with two Jhamir Brickus free throws, Villanova allowed UCF to score in just five seconds. Brickus then went one-of-two at the line before allowing Darius Johnson, who had 29 points at the time, to get wide open for a game-tying three.

“We were trying to get to Johnson, he’s just so quick,” Nardi said. “He got by and we switched it and there was just a lot of space and he stepped back and hit a tough shot. He’s really good.”

Villanova did not have a timeout remaining after wasting their final one on an inbounds play a few possessions prior despite Poplar being wide open on that play, so it was left to improvise on its final possession which ended with a Poplar layup going out of bounds off ‘Nova, sending the game to overtime.

UCF scored the first five points and never looked back. Villanova did pull within two with 34 seconds left, but the ‘Cats would not score the rest of the way.

The defense simply wasn’t good enough Saturday night, especially at the three-point line. UCF rained in 15 threes at a 43 percent clip, building a significant 21-point advantage from beyond the arc. Villanova also failed to control the tempo and let UCF play at its preferred pace, with the Knights scoring 26 points off the fast break.

Poplar and Enoch Boakye both netted double-doubles for the ‘Cats, with Poplar going for 32 points and 11 rebounds while Boakye added 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Dixon ended up with 29 points and seven rebounds Tyler Perkins also had a strong game with 18 points and six rebounds.

The attention now turns to the building of new head coach Kevin Willard’s staff, the transfer portal and the recruiting trail.