Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Villanova tops St. John’s in old-school battle
PHILADELPHIA — Leave it to Villanova and St. John’s, two of the holdovers from the old Big East Conference, to take more than 17,124 onlookers on a trip down memory lane.
Jay Wright called Villanova’s 57-54 hold-your-breath victory over St. John’s Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center an old-school Big East affair and he was right.
It was a throwback to a time when defense ruled the Big East and an autopsy, or at the very least a police report, was needed to draw a whistle from the officiating crew. Brian O’Connell, James Breeding and Bo Borowski let the ninthranked Villanova and resurgent St. John’s have at it and the Wildcats and Red Storm took full advantage of it to turn the game into an old-fashioned Big East defensive slugfest.
“There was only one way we were going to win this game: Defend and rebound,” Wright said. “We weren’t going to go down and outscore them. They’re too good defensively.”
The numbers back up Wright’s statement. Despite the return of Chris Obekpa, who was thought to be out for 10to-14 days with an ankle sprain and bone bruise, Villanova won the rebound battle, 41-33. The Wildcats had higher field goal percentages from the field overall (39.2 percent to 32.2 percent) and 3-point land (40.9 percent to 27.3 percent.)
Even though the ninthranked Wildcats (24-3 overall, 12-2 Big East) did shoot the ball a little better, they still tied the mark for the fewest points by a Villanova team in a win at the Wells Fargo Center.
Usually, Villanova is doomed when its scores fewer than 60 points in the house Ed Snider built. Coming into the game the Wildcats were 1-8 in games where they failed to get to the 60-point mark at the Wells Fargo Center.
However that stat did not apply because the Wildcats had a little more offensive firepower than the Red Storm (18-10, 8-7) and several players on its side that would feel at home in the Big East in any era, guys such as Darrun Hilliard, Ryan Arcidiacono, Daniel Ochefu and James Bell, just to name a few.
On a day when the defenses ruled, Hilliard found a way to score 18 points and shoot 6-for-8 overall and 4-for-5 from 3-point range. Arcidiacono added 12 points and hit one of the luckiest shots of his career. There will be more on that later.
Ochefu pulled downed 11 rebounds and made his defensive presence felt throughout the game. Bell saw his string of double-digit games come to an end at 10 games. He finished with nine points, but drilled three huge 3-point field goals, pulled down seven boards and blocked three shots against the team that leads the nation in that category.
“This is what we do,” Hilliard said. “We prepare for this every day in practice. We don’t prepare to come out one night and make every shot we put up. We prepare for the most difficult situation. That’s the type of game we get up for, not making shots. St. John’s is a great team, but we kept getting stops down the stretch.”
Make no mistake about it, defense saved the day for the Wildcats. Villanova held St. John’s to seven points over the last 7 minutes, 33 seconds. Villanova only scored 10 points in that stretch, including a banked 3-pointer by Arcidiacono that broke a 50-all deadlock and gave the Wildcats the lead for good.
“That was all luck,” Arcidiacono said.
Luck did play a role, but so did Arcidiacono’s court awareness. He knew the shot clock was winding down. The 6-3 sophomore also recognized that with a St. John’s defender running at him, he had to add a little more loft.
The ball banked off the square and fell through the hoop to bring the Villanova faithful to their feet.
“Arch practices that bank shot every day,” Wright said without a hint of a smile on his face.
Hilliard rolled his eyes and laughed, but there was nothing funny or lucky about Villanova’s defensive effort. The Wildcats went old-school to hold the Red Storm to 32.2 percent shooting overall (19-for-59) and just 27.3 percent from 3-point range (3-for-11).
D’Angelo Harrison led the way for St. John’s with 15 points. He came into the game averaging 28.7 points in his last three games against the Wildcats. North Philly native Rysheed Jordan added 13 points, six rebound and two assists in his return home, but he was visibly upset afterward and for good reason. St. John’s had several chances to keep its winning streak alive and pick up a much-needed road win against a ranked team to enhance its NCAA Tournament resume.
However,
the Red
Storm could not get the shots to fall.
Give the credit to Villanova’s defense. The Wildcats forced Phil Greene IV into a walk with 14.1 second left and Villanova holding a 55-53 lead. Bell blocked a 3-point attempt by Harrison after Arcidiacono nailed the back end of a twoshot foul to give the Wildcats a 56-53 advantage.
It was like that from the start.
“We struggled to score, but our defense was outstanding,” Arcidiacono said. “We just kept getting stop after stop.”
That’s the way it was in the old Big East Conference.
“You had to be physically and mentally tough to play in that game,” Wright said. “I thought the refs did a good job of letting them play both ways. It was like the (old) Big East. It was really cool.”