Villanova is heading north of the border for a game. But for two Wildcats, it means a little more.
Jasmine Bascoe and MD Ntambue are excited to reunite with family and friends and show their Wildcats teammates around their native Canada.
Jasmine Bascoe has represented her home country of Canada while playing basketball around the world.
The past four summers, the Villanova sophomore guard has competed for Team Canada in FIBA women’s basketball tournaments. In July, Bascoe traveled to Brno, Czechia, for the under-19 World Cup, where Team Canada finished fourth.
This weekend, Villanova’s leading scorer finally has a chance to return home. But this time, she’ll be wearing a Villanova jersey.
On Sunday, Villanova (1-1) will take a trip north of the border for a matchup with Virginia Commonwealth at Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto (2 p.m., ESPN+).
Bascoe isn’t the only Canadian on the team, either. Freshman guard MD Ntambue, a Montreal native, joined the Wildcats for 2025-26.
“We talk about how much we love Canada, and a lot of the girls and coaches haven’t experienced that,” Bascoe said. “So a chance for them to see our home soil outside of basketball is very cool.”
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Homecoming to Toronto
Bascoe’s high school coach helped set up a visit to her hometown of Milton, Ontario. The team will get to see where the point guard’s talents originated at King’s Christian Collegiate and will practice at the high school’s facilities.
Bascoe and Ntambue are looking forward to a reunion with family, friends, and basketball connections.
“There’s going to be a lot of people coming,” Ntambue said.
Although Ntambue is from Montreal, Toronto helped shape her high school basketball career. She attended Crestwood Prep School in suburban Toronto, where she earned first-team all-star honors from the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association.
Facing friends and rivals
The Rams have a pair of Canadian players of their own on their roster. Senior guard Mary-Anna Asare hails from Pickering, Ontario, and freshman guard Patricia Augustin joins VCU from Longueuil, Quebec.
As it happens, Bascoe and Ntambue have shared the court with each of them.
Asare competed in two FIBA tournaments alongside Bascoe. They traveled to Argentina for the 2022 U18 Americas Championship and to Spain for the 2023 U19 World Cup. Augustin was Bascoe’s teammate last summer in the 2024 U18 Americas Championship in Colombia.
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“[Asare] and I played together on Team Canada a couple times, so I know her very well, and I’m excited to play against her,” Bascoe said. “She’s a very good point guard, so it’s going to be a good matchup.”
Augustin, also from the Montreal area, is a familiar opponent for Ntambue. In high school, she trained at Capital Courts Academy in Ottawa, which defeated Ntambue’s Crestwood Prep in the 2025 OSBA championship game.
“There’s a little rivalry,” Bascoe said of the Montreal-area natives.
Seeking improvement
Sunday’s matchup will be only the third meeting between Villanova and VCU. The teams last faced off on March 21, 2024, in the first round of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. The Wildcats won, 75-60.
Villanova heads north after losing, 75-63, to Fairfield on Wednesday. Bascoe scored a career-high 30 points, and Ntambue contributed three assists in her 16 minutes off the bench.
The Wildcats look forward to the trip to Canada as a chance to correct Wednesday night’s struggles.
“Our team is very close, we’re very lucky, and off the court, we’re all very close friends,” Bascoe said. “So just being able to bring that onto the court has been the next step. We’ve done a good job of it over time, but we’re starting to play some tough teams right off the jump.”