Top-seed Wildcats leave little doubt

VILLANOVA 81, ALABAMA 58

PITTSBURGH — Jay Wright had some late-night restlessness because he could not turn off the television as long as Virginia and UMBC were still playing. He met his Villanova team in the morning and the players at the breakfast tables were buzzing over basketball’s biggest upset.

The reverberation from the 16-over-1 stunner was felt by another tourney top seed.

“There was a lot of attention with that,” guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “We’re a 1 seed so it was more attention for us.”

In the March spotlight, Villanova showed how a No. 1 seed takes cares of business.

Mikal Bridges hit five three-pointers, scored 23 points and helped Villanova put the field on notice that it’s the team to beat with an 81-58 victory over ninth-seeded Alabama on Saturday.

The Wildcats (32-4) are in the Sweet 16 for the first time since they won the 2016 national championship. Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Phil Booth look every bit the favorite to make it two in three years.

“My good vibes are coming from how this team’s playing, how unselfishly they play,” Wright said.

Alabama (20-16) failed to make it two No. 1s knocked out in less than 24 hours.

After a tense first half in a round that has given the program fits, the Wildcats hit

their first six three-pointers in the second and put on a thrashing up there among the most dominant under Wright.

Bridges, who averaged 17.9 points and played his way into a likely NBA Draft lottery pick, scored 1 point and missed all

five shots in the first half. He found his groove once the second half tipped. Bridges scored the first 5 points of the half and then finished a thunderous alley-oop on a pass from Booth that made it 41-27 and sent the Wildcats wildly

waving their arms in celebration headed into a timeout.

Bridges hit his first 3 three-pointers in succession to cap an 18-1 run and a Sweet 16 berth was in sight.

“I just had to play aggressive, play tougher,” he said.