'Nova's comeback falls barely short

Villanova fell short at the finish and lost to DePaul, 56-53, last night in a Big East Conference women's basketball game at the Pavilion.

The Wildcats (7-11, 1-4 Big East) overcame a nine-point deficit in the second half and had a chance to send the game into overtime. But Lisa Carcic missed the second of two free throws, which would have tied the game at 54 with eight seconds to play. The Blue Demons (12-6, 2-3) then hit two free throws.

DePaul, which just fell out of the weekly Associated Press poll, has been struggling with a slew of injuries. Only seven players were in uniform.

"You can play with seven players, but you'd like to have a little more balance in your lineup," said DePaul coach Doug Bruno, whose team had lost three in a row and five of six before last night.

"When you're down and a hurt basketball team, you need to get well any way you can," Bruno said. "And it certainly helps to win to get well. I don't know if we could have recovered at all if we had blown another big lead at crunch time of a game."

Jackie Adamshick had 21 points and 10 rebounds for Villanova. Karcic added 15 points.

Missy Mitidiero scored 19 points and Caprice Smith added 18 for the Blue Demons.

Bowling Green 64, Miami (Ohio) 56 - Ali Mann scored 18 points, and No. 18 Bowling Green (15-2, 5-0) extended its record streak of Mid-American Conference wins to 30 with a victory over Miami of Ohio (9-9, 4-2) in Oxford, Ohio.

Amber Flynn added 14 points, Liz Honegger had 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Kate Achter scored 10 points for the Falcons, who have won eight consecutive games since a 55-46 loss at No. 1 Duke on Dec. 19.

Bowling Green has not lost a conference game since Feb. 19, 2005.

South Florida 74, Louisville 58 - Shantia Grace scored 20 points and Jessica Dickson added 15 to lead South Florida over No. 15 Louisville in Tampa, Fla.

Nalini Miller had 12 points and 16 rebounds, and ChiChi Okpaleke scored 10 to help South Florida (14-4, 4-1 Big East) topple a ranked opponent for the first time in four opportunities this season. It was just the Bulls' third victory in 20 tries against Top 25 teams.

Angel McCoughtry finished with 21 points and 11 boards for Louisville (17-2, 3-2).

Rutgers 71, Georgetown 41 - Essence Carson scored a game-high 18 points, and Kia Vaughn added 16 as Rutgers defeated Georgetown in Piscataway, N.J.

Epiphanny Prince (11) and Brittany Ray (10) also scored in double figures for the Scarlet Knights (10-5, 5-1 Big East). Kieraah Marlow had 14 points to lead the Hoyas (11-7, 1-4).

Rutgers led throughout. A three-pointer by Marlow with 13 minutes, 41 seconds left in the first half pulled Georgetown to within two points, at 9-7. But Georgetown did not score again for more than eight minutes as Rutgers used a 22-0 run to build a 31-7 lead.

Pennsylvania 61, Manhattan 58 - Monica Nalter scored 13 points to lead the Quakers (6-9) past the Jaspers (4-13) in New York.

University of the Sciences 65, Philadelphia University 53 - Shelby Rance scored 24 points to lead the Devils (9-6) past the visiting Rams (9-5), who got 13 points each from Meg Abele and Ashley Webster.

Holy Family 75, Wilmington 52 - Megan Bauer scored a game-high 21 points, including the 1,000th point of her career, as the Tigers (13-1) beat the visiting Wildcats (8-5).