Villanova wins Big East, but loses Gillespie
Three COVID stoppages couldn’t keep Villanova from winning yet another Big East regular-season title. Neither could three double-digit losses in the league, a first for the Wildcats since the conference was reconfigured in 2012.
Justin Moore paced a balanced attack with a game-high 24 points as the 10th-ranked Wildcats wrapped up their sixth outright Big East regular-season title and seventh in the last eight years with a 72-60 victory over No. 14 Creighton Wednesday night at the Finneran Pavilion.
The victory also locked up the No. 1 seed for next week’s Big East tournament and avenged a 16-point loss to the Bluejays.
Moore finished 9-for-12 from the field (3-for-5 from 3-point range) and had five rebounds and five assists. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (14 points, 14 rebounds, five assists), Brandon Slater (11) also scored in double figures for the Wildcats (16-4, 11-3 Big East).
The win, though, came at a cost. Senior guard Collin Gillespie went down awkwardly while defending a shot by Creighton’s Damien Jefferson in the paint with 6:38 to go in the first half. He hopped off the court with his left leg raised and went to the locker room after being looked at on the sideline.
Gillespie did not return. He sat on the bench in the second half with his left knee wrapped.
Gillespie is a finalist for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year award and the heart and soul of the team.
Teammate Dhamir CosbyRoundtree, who is out with a shin surgery, tweeted “Pray for Collin,” with a praying hands emoji. Coach Jay Wright described the injury as “serious” on the television broadcast postgame.
The Bluejays had their own issues. The big question coming into the game was how the Bluejays would respond in the wake of the racially insensitive analogy head coach Greg McDermott made following Creighton’s 77-69 loss to Creighton last Saturday. McDermott apologized for the comment but received harsh criticism on social media.
In a statement, Creighton called the analogy “deplorable” and “inconsistent with the university’s values and commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment.”
The Big East also criticized McDermott in a statement Wednesday.
The Bluejays (17-7, 136) started fast Wednesday night. Creighton scored the first five points and then went stone cold. The Blue Jays wound up shooting 29 percent overall and 25 percent from 3-point range. Villanova capitalized on that poor shooting performance.
The Wildcats used runs of 17-2 and 10-3 to take a 42-23 lead into the locker room at halftime. Villanova had 12 assists on its first 13 baskets.
Villanova kept the pressure on and built a 57-35 lead six minutes into the second half before the Bluejays mounted a furious comeback.
The Wildcats went scoreless for the next 8:32, and Creighton ripped off 17 straight points to cut the deficit to 57-52. RobinsonEarl hit a layup to end the drought. Shereef Mitchell responded to get the Bluejays back within 59-54, but it was all Villanova from there.
Slater buried a 3-pointer from the right corner off a feed from Bryan Antoine, and Moore converted a conventional 3-point play as the Wildcats closed the game on a 12-6 run.