VILLANOVA, Pa. — Hack-a-Krauser is the new phrase.

Pitt guard Carl Krauser was frustrated… VILLANOVA, Pa. — Hack-a-Krauser is the new phrase.

Pitt guard Carl Krauser was frustrated after yesterday’s 80-72 upset loss to Villanova. Added to the pains of the loss was something that happened to him in the second half — and it’s something that has been going on for a while.

“My mouth has been quiet,” Krauser said, with blood on his upper lip. “I kind of felt like [Shaquille O’Neal] out there. You know when Shaq gets hacked a lot, and everyone just looks at him.”

Krauser, who finished with 16 points Saturday, then went on to explain that in the second half of yesterday’s game at the Pavilion, he was being hacked every time he would drive the lane. He did note that it was not the reason Pitt (18-5 overall, 8-4 Big East) lost, but it was a factor.

Pitt forward Chevon Troutman expressed some frustration as well.

“The whistle wasn’t blowing as much,” he said.

When the whistle did blow, it was to Villanova’s (17-6, 7-5) benefit. Pitt had just cut the Wildcat lead to three at 71-68, but Panther guard Antonio Graves fouled Allan Ray with a minute and five seconds remaining. Ray drove the paint and hit a jump shot from the right elbow.

He tacked on the free throw to give his team a six-point lead.

“He cut him off pretty good,” head coach Jamie Dixon said of Graves’ foul. “We wanted to cut them off in the paint.”

But stopping Ray was too hard a task for the Panthers. The Bronx, N.Y., native scored 23 points, 15 of which came on second-half 3-pointers.

“He knows he’s our shooter,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. “He’s our go-to guy. They were in zone … He knew immediately that was his opportunity.”

Ray was the Wildcats shooter for sure in the second half. Three of his 3-pointers came during a 17-2 run that Villanova made in the middle of the second half to give the Wildcats a lead they wouldn’t give up.

Trailing 43-40, Ray knocked down two consecutive 3-pointers. Curtis Sumpter followed Ray’s shots with a 3-pointer of his own — a wide-open shot from the left corner. Sumpter finished with 18 points and was three of four from 3-point land.

Ray capped the run with another 3-pointer taken deep outside the 3-point arc and over Krauser.

Villanova held a 71-58 lead with 5:40 to go, but poor shot selection and improved Pitt defense kept the Wildcats from scoring another point for the next four minutes and 35 seconds. Pitt scored 10 points during that span, but saw the run end with Ray’s bucket and free throw.

“Just from the beginning we did a bad job defensively,” said Krauser, whose team allowed Villanova to hit 47.2 percent of its shots and score 80 points.

The last team to hit more than 45 percent of its shots was St. John’s back on Jan 18, also a Pitt loss. Villanova is the second team to score more than 70 points on the Panthers in Big East play this season. Prior to the loss, Pitt had held 10 of 11 opponents under 70 (West Virginia scored 83 in overtime on Feb. 5.)

Pitt led at the half 36-34, but it was a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer from halfcourt that gave the Panthers the two-point lead heading into the locker room.

Center Aaron Gray scored a career-high 15 points, powered by a 12-point, first-half performance. Gray helped Pitt to a 34-14 advantage in the paint, but the outside shooting of Villanova made the performance of the Panthers’ big men look very small.

As a team, the Wildcats were 12-of-23 from the 3-point line.

“They shoot the ball well. That’s what they do,” Dixon said. “We had some breakdowns, sometimes against the zone.”

Guard Mike Nardi took advantage of some of those breakdowns, hitting three of his five 3-point attempts to finish with 13 points. He was one of four Wildcats in double-digit scoring.

Troutman failed to reach double-digit scoring for the first time since the loss to St. John’s a Madison Square Garden.

With Boston College holding a firm grip on the regular season Big East title, Pitt, with four games remaining, will look to improve and attain a decent seed for the Big East Tournament.

Pitt’s next game is on Wednesday when West Virginia travels to the Petersen Events Center for a 7 p.m. tip-off.