White-hot ’Nova cools down Buddy
HOUSTON — Villanova had a night to remember on both ends of the court.
Buddy Hield had a night to forget.
Setting a record for margin of victory in a Final Four semifinal, the Wildcats held Hield to his second-lowest output of the season in a 95-51 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday night.
“That was just one of those nights,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “I feel bad for Oklahoma.”
He can feel good for his Wildcats (34-5) as they advanced to the national championship game Monday.
Josh Hart scored 23 points, and his 10-for-12 shooting performance was part of Villanova’s 71.4 percent (35-for-49) effort. Villanova missed five shots in the second half.
The margin topped the 34-point Final Four wins by Cincinnati over Oregon State in 1962 and Michigan State over Penn in 1979.
The Wildcats now have four victories in the tournament of at least 19 points, the only close game a five-point win over overall No. 1 seed Kansas in the Elite Eight.
Villanova dominated the Sooners (29-8) after an opening seven minutes that had the teams trading the lead almost every possession.
The Wildcats broke it open with a 21-4 surge. The stats about NRG Stadium being a horrible place to shoot went out the window, along with the Sooners’ chances at playing for their first title.
“I definitely think it helped,” Wright said of practicing shooting in the dome. “‘We’re going to be good,’ we keep telling them, and they believed that.”
The Wildcats, with Hart going 7-for-8, shot 66.7 percent in the first half, including 6-for-11 from threepoint range in taking a 42-28 halftime lead.
“I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but when you have guys like [teammates] you can go off any night,” Hart said. “When they’re aggressive, it helps me. The driving lanes, able to get a couple of shots to fall, when that happens, able to kick out and get some guys some shots.”
As the Wildcats, who won it all in 1985 with the shocking upset of Georgetown, kept making shots, Hield kept missing.
The unanimous All-America selection was 3-for-8 in the first half, including 1-for-5 from beyond the arc.
“Just playing defensively as a team … we contained him,” Hart said.
The Sooners finished 31.7 percent (19-for-60) for the game.
“Just credit them for what they were doing. Made it tough on me throwing multiple bodies at me,” Hield said.
Several Wildcats get credit for the great defense against Hield.
“We were just loading into him,” Mikal Bridges said. “We just tried our best to limit his touches and load to him when he had the ball.”
Kris Jenkins added 18 points for Villanova and Ryan Arcidiacono had 15.