A victory over the nation's eighth-ranked team, in February, is never a bad thing to put on the resumé.

Instead, the way this one went down only added to the agita.

Somehow last night, Villanova had the ball last in a tie game at the Verizon Center, where they had never lost in their six trips here since the building opened a little more than a decade ago. Somehow, because the Wildcats were shooting 4-for-31 in the second half, having missed 18 straight in one 12-minute stretch.

So they gave it to their guy, Scottie Reynolds, knowing they were either going to take it in regulation, or go to overtime. How could there be anything else?

Reynolds drove to the right baseline, got caught in traffic, maybe drew contact, and as he was falling out of bounds tried to pass to Antonio Pena in the lane. But it got deflected. And after a scramble, it bounced into the hands of Georgetown's Jonathan Wallace, who started to dribble the other way. And got bumped by Villanova freshman Corey Stokes, about 70 feet from the basket.

"I wanted to take it strong, make sure we got the last shot or a tip-in," Reynolds said. "I didn't want to [settle for a jumper] too early in the [shot] clock. In my head, I thought we were going into overtime. The rest is history."

Veteran official Bob Donato, from Delaware County, blew his whistle and raised his arm. With 1/10th of a second showing. And a Villanova squad that had lost to North Carolina State on a controversial foul call with 2/10ths of a second remaining in late November again was forced to watch helplessly as another opponent made two free throws to beat them. This time, by a score of 55-53.

"Honestly, I didn't see it," said coach Jay Wright, whose team ended a five-game losing streak 2 nights earlier at home against

Seton Hall. "I can't even complain. I thought [regulation play] was over."

The Wildcats (14-9, 4-7 Big East), who also missed their first seven shots to start the game, could have gone to St. John's on Saturday with a chance to get back to .500 in the conference. Instead . . .

"It's no moral victory or anything," Wright said. "But we played better. I think we're learning. That's what we have to go through. That's going to be our journey this year."

The Wildcats are last in the conference in field-goal percentage defense. But they held the Hoyas (20-3, 10-2), who were coming off an eight-point loss at Louisville in which they scored 16 second-half points, without a basket for 9 1/2 minutes to take a 29-28 halftime lead. The Hoyas, who lead the nation in field-goal percentage defense, then held the Wildcats without a bucket for nearly 12 minutes. With 8 1/2 minutes to go, they were up a dozen.

It looked over. But it wasn't.

The Wildcats kept coming, even though they still were having trouble from the floor. So was Georgetown. The Wildcats finally drew even with just more than a minute left on a driving banker by Reynolds. When Austin Freeman couldn't convert a trey from the right corner at the other end, it was Villanova's game to win.

Or not.

"I was just playing defense and the ref called a foul," Stokes explained. "I was upset. I just kept my head held high. I know I played hard. We were playing aggressive.

"This team is young. It's going through a lot. By the end, we're going to be the best team [we could be]."

Reynolds led the Wildcats with 24 points. The rest of the team shot 8-for-44, 1-for-18 from the arc. Freshman Corey Fisher was 1-for-16. Dante Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson, in his second straight start, had 10 rebounds each. The Wildcats forced 18 turnovers.

Georgetown's 7-2 Roy Hibbert by himself caused 6-10 Casiem Drummond to foul out (in 21 minutes). Yet he didn't dominate. Wallace finished with 15 points. The Hoyas had 17 fewer shots.

"Our kids are crushed right now," Wright said. "But we played a very good team, on the road, and played well. I've watched Georgetown win a lot of games this year like that. They found a way. We've had teams like that, for a few years. Sometimes, you have to win with defense. We know what we have to do to be a good team."

On the last sequence, "No one really made a mistake," Wright said. "We just didn't make a play. I trust Scottie. It still stings, because you only get a few chances at this. But we had four freshmen on the court [at times] and played pretty good defense. Other nights, it's been a disaster."

So you take what you can from it and move on. There really is no other option.

"Obviously, losing's the hard part," Cunningham said. "But there were more positives than negatives. We teared up a little bit in the locker room, but we grew as a team. [Stokes] will be fine. We'll talk about it."

Added Reynolds: "It's something this group's gone through. N.C. State was kind of crazy, too. But I'm proud of [the team] and what we're trying to accomplish right now. We made strides. And that's going to carry us further than a 'W.' "

Perhaps. But that probably didn't make the bus ride home any easier on the stomach. *