This time, final possession goes awry

Unlike last year in Houston, Villanova’s final offensive possession of the season did not go as planned.

Jay Wright wanted to get the ball to Jalen Brunson and let his point guard make a play with 12 seconds left and the Wildcats down two in what would be a 6562 loss to eighth-seeded Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the KeyBank Center Saturday night.

The Badgers, though, sniffed that out so the Wildcats had to go to Plan B, which was to get the ball to Josh Hart or Donte DiVincenzo, Villanova’s two most consistent scorers in their brief stay in the Big Dance, and let them make a play.

DiVincenzo inbounded the ball to Hart who worked his way to the basket, only to have the ball stolen by Wisconsin’s Vitto Brown. DiVincenzo was forced to foul and Brown made the front end of the two-shot foul to seal the victory.

Hart was at a loss for what happened in the final seconds.

“Honestly, I can’t tell you,” Hart said. “I’m going to have to watch that one at some point, but honestly, right now, I don’t know what happened.”

Villanova coach Jay Wright did.

“They made a great defensive play,” Wright said

••• So, just how important is Bronson Koenig to Wisconsin’s success. Well, when the 6-3 senior picked up his fourth personal foul with 13 minutes, 41 seconds left in the game, the score was tied, 37-37. When he returned with 5:43 to play, the Badgers trailed 54-50, and that deficit would grow to 57-50 when DiVincenzo hit a 3-pointer 12 seconds later.

But it did not take Koenig long to make his presence felt. After Nigel Hayes dropped in a layup to make it a five-point game, Koenig had a bucket to get the Badgers within three points. He wasn’t finished. Koenig buried a 3-pointer from the left corner with 3:24 remaining to tie the game at 57.

“I knew that’s not how my career was going to end,” Koenig said. “I knew that when coach gave me the opportunity to get back in there I was going to make something happen.” He did. “Koenig’s three was huge,” Wright said. “That’s what close games come down to. We’ve been on the other end of that a lot. And when another team steps up and makes those plays and two great players like Koenig and (Nigel) Hayes make those plays, you just have to give them credit.”

The question for Wisconsin coach Greg Gard was when to put his best player back in the game. Gard wasn’t sure and neither were his assistant coaches.

“One wanted to put him back in at seven minutes and the other said no,” Gard said. “I never got (assistant coach Joe) Krabbenhoft’s vote. I decided to wait.”

It was a wise decision. Koenig provided the spark the Badgers needed to pull off the upset and advance to the Sweet 16 for the fourth year in a row.

NOTES » It was a rough NCAA Tournament for Villanova senior Kris Jenkins, the hero of last year’s championship game. The 6-6 forward did not make a 3-pointer in Villanova’s brief stay in the tournament. He shot 2-for-9 overall against the Badgers and 0-for-2 from 3-point range. That was after a 2-for-13, 0-for-6 performance in Villanova’s 76-56 triumph over Mount St. Mary’s in the opening round. It was the fourth time in the last six games that Jenkins did not have a 3-point field goal. He averaged just 6.5 points in the tournament … DiVincenzo put up some big numbers in his first appearance in the Big Dance. The 6-5 redshirt freshman 14-for26 overall and 6-for-8 from 3-point range. He averaged 18 points and 9.5 rebounds in two games. Eric Paschall also had a solid tournament. The 6-7 senior averaged 9.5 points in the two games in Buffalo.